Release profiles of encapsulated actives from colloidosomes sintered for various durations

This paper presents the formation of low temperature colloidosomes from colloidal poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate) particles for both water-in-oil and oil-in-water systems. An investigation into the sintering conditions examines the ultimate shell morphology formed, with longer sintering times and higher sintering temperatures producing less porous microcapsules. This has been verified by the release of an encapsulated dye from the aqueous core microcapsules, in which slower release has been detected for longer sintering times. The results are subsequently fitted with a diffusion equation to give a diffusion coefficient of fluorescein through the polymeric shell of 10(-17) m(2)/s.