Colloidal Jamming by Interfacial Self-Assembled Polymers: A Robust Route for Ultrahigh Efficient Encapsulation

The control of cargo phase-transfer is of interest for many applications in science and technology. Herein, we report a simple, versatile and robust method to block the phase-transfer of cargo colloids by interfacial self-assembled amphiphilic polymer molecules. After simply increasing the concentration of amphiphilic polymers, the orientation of interfacial polymer molecules changed from flat to upright, forming a thick three-dimensional polymer layer at the oil-water interface. Even under fierce external force, this thick interfacial layer robustly prevented the phase-transfer of cargo colloids, resulting in an ultrahigh encapsulation efficiency (up to 97.1 %) for proteins and peptides. One single injection of high insulin-loaded microcomposites (58.3 wt%) kept the blood glucose level within the normoglycemic state for 10 days in type 1 diabetic rats. The mass of administrated amphiphilic polymers was 1889 times smaller than that of microcomposites prepared with non-amphiphilic ones.

Automated summary

In this study, a simple, versatile, and robust method was developed to control the phase-transfer of cargo colloids using interfacial self-assembled amphiphilic polymer molecules. By increasing the concentration of amphiphilic polymers, a thick three-dimensional polymer layer was formed at the oil-water interface, effectively preventing the phase-transfer of cargo colloids. The method showed high encapsulation efficiency for proteins and peptides and could be used for treating diabetes.