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Facile Fabrication of Macroporous PLGA Microspheres via Double‐Pickering Emulsion Templates
Author(s) -
Hu Yang,
Zou Shengwen,
Yang Yu,
Tong Zhen,
Wang Chaoyang
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201400574
Subject(s) - pickering emulsion , plga , chemical engineering , emulsion , porosity , materials science , fabrication , nanoparticle , dichloromethane , template , polymer chemistry , nanotechnology , chemistry , organic chemistry , composite material , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , solvent , engineering
Porous poly(lactic‐ co ‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres with a well‐defined pore structure are easily and effectively fabricated, from water‐in‐oil‐in‐water (W/O/W) double‐Pickering emulsions formed by one‐step emulsification. The water phase containing hydrophilic silica (SiO 2 ) nanoparticles is emulsified with dichloromethane (CH 2 Cl 2 ) solution of PLGA to directly obtain W/O/W double‐Pickering emulsions. The influences of the PLGA concentration, composition and molecular weight, SiO 2 nanoparticle concentration, and volume ratio of oil to water on the morphology structure of the double emulsions are systematically investigated. The porous PLGA microspheres are facilely produced by evaporating the CH 2 Cl 2 and water in the double emulsions. The pore structure of the porous PLGA microspheres can be modulated simply by varying the PLGA concentration. Finally, potential mechanisms for the one‐step fabrication of double‐Pickering emulsions and porous PLGA microspheres are proposed. This work opens up a new and simple route to fabricate porous PLGA microspheres, which are suitable for biomedical applications.