Shear-induced deformations of polyamide microcapsules

The application of microcapsules for technical, cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes has attracted increased interest in recent years. The design of new capsule types requires a profound knowledge of their mechanical properties. Rheological studies provide interesting information on intrinsic membrane properties and this information can be used to avoid premature release of encapsulated compounds due to the action of external mechanical forces (stirring, swallowing, spreading). In this publication we report a systematic study of polyamide microcapsules. These particles were synthesized by reacting 4-aminomethyl-1,8-diaminooctane and sebacoyl dichloride at the interface between silicone oil and water. Two different experiments were performed to get information on the mechanical properties of the capsule walls. First of all, we used an optical rheometer (rheoscope) to observe the capsule deformation and orientation in shear flow. The polymerization kinetics, relaxation properties, the regime of linear-viscoelastic behavior and the shear modulus of the flat membranes were independently measured in an interfacial rheometer. Both experiments gave complementary results. It turned out that the two-dimensional elongational modulus was about 3-4 times larger than the shear modulus. This result is in fairly good agreement with a theoretical model recently proposed by Barthes-Biesel. Due to the simple synthesis and well-defined structure, polyamide microcapsules can also serve as simple model systems to understand the complicated flow properties of red blood cells.