Encapsulation in sub-micron species: a short review and alternate strategy for dye encapsulation

The encapsulation of molecular species has received considerable attention in recent years. Polymers, dendrimers and microemulsions along with other systems have been used as precursors for the synthesis of encapsulating agents. Especially important in this field is the core-shell architecture. This structure offers the encapsulated species an extra level of protection due to the presence of a shell, covering the interior of a capsule. Dyes, porphyrines, drugs, cells and other active agents have been successfully encapsulated, and the host-guest interaction has been studied by various experimental techniques. A review is new provided of the progress made in this field in the last several years is presented. Different classes of synthetic approaches are presented and resulting encapsulation studies are summarised. An approach to the encapsulation of dansyl chloride dye in core-shell nanoparticles is also presented.