New sight at the organization of layers of multilayer polyelectrolyte microcapsules

In this work, the mutual arrangement of polyelectrolytes of multilayer polyelectrolyte microcapsules (with layers-[PAH/PSS](3)PAH) by determination of the dissociation level of polyallylamine (PAH) from the surface of a polyelectrolyte microcapsules (PMC) of various types was studied: PMC with a dissolved CaCO3 core after preparation, PMC with an undissolved CaCO3 core and PMC with an encapsulated protein. It was concluded that the polyelectrolyte layers are mixed in the entire shell of the capsules with a dissolved CaCO3 core. In the case of the PMC with an undissolved CaCO3 core, such mixing of polyelectrolyte layers does not occur. That fact allows us to conclude that the mixing of polyelectrolytes layers mixing at the stage of dissolution of CaCO3 core. The PMC with encapsulated protein has partial mixing of polyelectrolytes layers. That phenomenon may be due to the fact that seven-layered protein-containing microcapsules already have a dense and well-formed shell. The obtained data correlate with the data on the study of the surface charge of microcapsules.

Automated summary

The study found that the surface of polyelectrolyte microcapsules with a dissolved CaCO3 core exhibited mixed polyelectrolyte layers, while those with an undissolved CaCO3 core did not, indicating mixing of polyelectrolyte layers during the dissolution stage of the CaCO3 core. Additionally, microcapsules encapsulating proteins showed partial mixing of polyelectrolyte layers, possibly due to the dense and well-formed shell of such microcapsules. These findings are consistent with the surface charge analysis of the microcapsules.