Double Emulsion Production
Double emulsion could be defined as a droplet encapsulated within a larger droplet of different immiscible phases. Making double emulsion is a promising method for many academics [1][2] as industrial fields such as in cosmetics for fragrance manufacturing [3] [4] [5], in food application for flavor manufacturing, food supplement encapsulation such as vitamin and taste masking [6] [7], in pharmaceutics for drug delivery (protection of Agent Pharmaceutical Ingredient in microcapsules for control drug release) and other… [8] [9]
Whereas double emulsion is a promising method for many applications, technologies to make double emulsion such as batch methods are all suffering from various limitations such as poor size distribution, multiple-step process, and low reproducibility… [6] [8]
In this application, we are going to present a robust capillary-based device that allows single-step production of double emulsion with a single device.
Different examples of double emulsion (w/o/w and o/w/o) have been generated to show the versatility and adaptability of the Raydrop to multiple applications such as Polymer and Hydrogel microcapsules for drug delivery or for encapsulation of cells for FACS sorting as well.
Materials and methods
System setup
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Partial results
Water in oil in water double emulsion
Oil in water in oil double emulsion
Partially miscible (solvent) double emulsion
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Conclusion
In this application note we have demonstrated how we can produce a robust different type of double emulsion with a single device.
Precise control of the flow allows also to generate high monodispersity (≈2% size dispersion) double emulsion at different frequencies to target different volume production.
Examples with common fluids such as water, mineral oils, fluorocarbon oils, and solvents have been demonstrated here. This method can also be used for the production of double emulsion with specific fluids such as a polymer (PLGA, PLA,…), hydrogel (Alginate, agarose,…), and others.
As a consequence, this method is a promising method for different markets and could be used in order to get rid of limitations of current technologies such as batch methods and other for different applications such as in pharma, food or cosmetic.
