Preparation of Swellable Hydrogel-Containing Colloidosomes from Aqueous Two-Phase Pickering Emulsion Droplets

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Supramolecular Chemistry
• Biomaterials Engineering

Background:

• Colloidosomes are vesicular structures formed from colloidal particles.
• Pickering emulsions offer a route to particle-stabilized interfaces.
• Water-in-water emulsions provide biocompatible environments for encapsulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate stable colloidosomes from water-in-water Pickering-like emulsions.
• To develop hydrogelled droplets with controlled molecular transport properties.
• To explore applications in microencapsulation and synthetic protocell assembly.

Main Methods:

• Formation of a two-phase aqueous system (dextran/PEG).
• Addition of fluorescent amine-modified polystyrene latex beads.
• Crosslinking of polyacrylic acid and dextran using carbodiimide chemistry.

Main Results:

• Stable colloidosomes were successfully fabricated in an all-water system.
• The resulting hydrogelled droplets exhibited reversible swelling behavior.
• Selective molecular uptake and exclusion capabilities were demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• All-water colloidosomes offer a novel platform for advanced microencapsulation.
• The developed hydrogelled droplets are suitable for controlled molecular delivery.
• This approach facilitates bottom-up construction of synthetic protocell mimics.