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Enzymatic hydrolysis of organic-core microcapsules to produce aqueous-core microcapsules
Veronique Breguet1, Vojislav Vojinovic, Urs Von Stockar
1Laboratory of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
This paper describes the development of a new method to obtain aqueous-core microcapsules from organic-core capsules. The direct production of microcapsules, using tripropionin as organic material, followed by the hydrolysis of the core by a lipase was investigated. The enzymatic study showed that the enzyme obeyed a Michaelis-Menten mechanism and conditions for optimal activity were pH 7.5, 25-37 degrees C and 0% NaCl. Under these conditions, incubation of tripropionin-alginate microcapsules in a buffer containing the enzyme successfully produced aqueous-core capsules with reduced accumulation of alginate in the core in approximately 3 h.
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