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Preparing Monodispersed Hydrogel Microspheres and Microcapsules

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Y. Senuma,
Ch. Lowe,
Y. Zweifel,
J. G. Hilborn and
I. Marison
Y. Senuma
Affiliation:
Polymer Laboratory, Department of Materials Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, CH- 1015 Ecublens, Switzerland, Joens.Hilborn@epfl.ch
Ch. Lowe
Affiliation:
Polymer Laboratory, Department of Materials Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, CH- 1015 Ecublens, Switzerland, Joens.Hilborn@epfl.ch
Y. Zweifel
Affiliation:
Polymer Laboratory, Department of Materials Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, CH- 1015 Ecublens, Switzerland, Joens.Hilborn@epfl.ch
J. G. Hilborn
Affiliation:
Polymer Laboratory, Department of Materials Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, CH- 1015 Ecublens, Switzerland, Joens.Hilborn@epfl.ch
I. Marison
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
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Abstract

Our spinning disk atomization (SDA) can, relative to other existing techniques, produce micronsized particles of very narrow size distribution. The aim of this work is to present this technology for the production of alginate microspheres. We have atomized and gelled aqueous alginate solutions into very narrowly dispersed microspheres with sizes ranging from 300 to 600 μm. Here the interest is to design particles of a given size with a narrow size distribution and to show a new method of encapsulation using the SDA. The viscosity and flow rate contributions in the drop formation is qualitatively analyzed to show how it affects the droplet size. In addition, a technique for high degree of encapsulation will be presented. As an example, yeast has been used as a model system. The production of yeast loaded microspheres will show the potential of the technique for biotechnology applications. Such alginate beads could potentially serve as carriers for acitive substances or cells in large scale bioreactors.

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