Block Copolymer Capsules with Structure‐Dependent Release Behavior |
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| Authors: | Dr Jiangping Xu Dr Jun Li Yi Yang Dr Ke Wang Nan Xu Dr Jingyi Li Dr Ruijing Liang Prof Lei Shen Prof Xiaolin Xie Prof Juan Tao Prof Jintao Zhu |
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| Institution: | 1. Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China;2. Department of Dermatology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, HUST, Wuhan, China |
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| Abstract: | Although high‐boiling non‐solvent induced macrophase separation in emulsion droplets has been widely applied for the fabrication of polymeric capsules, precise control of their structures remains a great challenge. Herein, block copolymer capsules with tunable shell structures were fabricated by employing a non‐solvent as a liquid template in emulsion droplets. The properties of the non‐solvents dictate the phase separation sequence in the droplets and the capsule formation mechanism. Two different pathways for capsule formation were observed, and could be applied to predict the shell structure. The structured capsules could be transformed into mesoporous capsules, which demonstrated an intriguing structure‐dependent release behavior. Capsules with spherical shell structures displayed the best permeability, while those with lamellar shell structures showed the slowest release, but with a stepwise profile. After loading with an anticancer drug, different capsules induced different apoptosis ratios in cancer cell studies. |
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| Keywords: | apoptosis block copolymers capsules controlled release phase separation |
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