Strong Dual-Compartment Microcapsules Loaded with High Cargo Contents.

Compartmentalized microcapsules are useful for the release of multiple cargos in medicine, agriculture, and advanced responsive materials. Although several encapsulation strategies that involve more than one cargo have been proposed, dual- or multicompartment capsules with high cargo loadings and sufficient mechanical stability are rarely reported. Here, we propose a single-step emulsification route for the preparation of strong dual-compartment capsules that can host the main cargo in their core in combination with another liquid cargo stored within their thick shell.

Strong Microcapsules with Permeable Porous Shells Made through Phase Separation in Double Emulsions.

Microcapsules for controlled chemical release and uptake are important in many industrial applications but are often difficult to produce with the desired combination of high mechanical strength and high shell permeability. Using water-oil-water double emulsions made in microfluidic devices as templates, we developed a processing route to obtain mechanically robust microcapsules exhibiting a porous shell structure with controlled permeability. The porous shell consists of a network of interconnected polymer particles that are formed upon phase separation within the oil phase of the double emulsion.

Robust Microcompartments with Hydrophobically Gated Shells.

We report on robust synthetic microcompartments with hydrophobically gated shells that can reversibly swell and contract multiple times upon external stimuli. The gating mechanism relies on a hydrophilic-hydrophobic transition of a polymer layer that is grafted on inorganic colloidosomes using atom-transfer radical polymerization. As a result of such a transition, the initially tight hydrophobic shell becomes permeable to the diffusion of hydrophilic solutes across the microcompartment walls.