One-step High-throughput Controlled Preparation of Biocompatible Water/Water Microcapsules with Triggered Release

Biocompatible water/water microcapsules are of great significance for drug delivery and medical therapy. In this paper,co-axial microfluidic devices were designed via the optimization by numerical simulations and the analysis of flow resistance to realize one-step high-throughput controlled preparation of water/water microcapsules with good uniformity,tunable size and shell thickness,and excellent biocompatibility. Specifically,the influences of device design,inner phase flow rate,outer phase flow rate,outer phase/air interfacial tension,inner phase/outer phase interfacial tension,inner phase viscosity and outer phase viscosity on the diameter and shell thickness of water/ water microcapsules were systematically investigated by means of experiments and simulations. By carefully analyzing the flow resistance of microchannels,microfluidic devices were parallelly amplified to achieve high -throughput preparation of water/water microcapsules with controlled size. Biocompatible water/water microcapsules are ideal delivery vehicles for various actives,showing controlled pH -triggered release of encapsulated cargos,which pave the way for their practical applications.

Automated summary

In this paper, co-axial microfluidic devices were optimized by numerical simulations and flow resistance analysis to achieve one-step high-throughput controlled preparation of biocompatible water/water microcapsules with good uniformity, tunable size, and shell thickness. The influences of various factors on the properties of the microcapsules were systematically investigated, and the devices were parallelly amplified to achieve high-throughput preparation. The water/water microcapsules showed controlled pH-triggered release of encapsulated cargos, making them ideal delivery vehicles for various actives.