pH dependent degradation properties of lactide based 3D microchamber arrays for sustained cargo release

Encapsulation of small water soluble molecules is important in a large variety of applications, ranging from medical substance releasing implants in the field of medicine over release of catalytically active substances in the field of chemical processing to anti-corrosion agents in industry. In this work polylactic acid (PLA) based hollow-structured microchamber (MC) arrays are fabricated via one-step dip coating of a silicone rubber stamp into PLA solution. These PLA MCs are able to retain small water soluble molecules (Rhodamine B) stably entrapped within aqueous environments. It is shown, that degradation of PLA MCs strongly depends on environmental conditions like surrounding pH and follows first order degradation kinetics. This pH dependent PLA MC degradation can be utilized to control the release kinetics of encapsulated cargo.