Versatility of the microencapsulation technique via integrating microfluidic T-Junction and interfacial polymerization in encapsulating different polyamines

Attributed to the wide applications of organic polyamines, the microencapsulation of polyamines with different physicochemical properties is promising for their new applications in other fields, such as self-reporting materials, self-healing materials, stimuli-responsive latent curing agents, etc. Herein, the versatility of the novel micro-encapsulation technique via integrating microfluidic T-junction and interfacial polymerization was demonstrated by encapsulating three typical polyamines with distinct physicochemical properties, i.e. tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), meta-xylylenediamine (XDA), and polyetheramine JEFFAMINE T403. The microencapsulation processes for the three polyamines and the synthesized corresponding microcapsules were carefully studied in depth, and were correlated to the physicochemical properties of the polyamines. It shows that all the three polyamines can be successfully encapsulated by this technique, and the properties of the achieved microcapsules were highly influenced by their physicochemical properties. Polyamine mixtures consisting of TEPA/XDA and TEPA/T403 at different mass ratios were also encapsulated to tailor the properties of the microcapsules, showing that the polyamine with smaller molecule size contributes more to the shell formation. The results of this investigation provide theoretical guidance for the microencapsulation of other polyamines using this technique based on non-equilibrium droplets.