School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Physics, Harvard University , Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States.
Instituto de Macromoléculas Professora Eloisa Mano, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , Rio de Janeiro 21941-598, Brasil.
Langmuir. 2016 May 31;32(21):5350-5. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b01399. Epub 2016 May 18.
Block copolymers with a low hydrophilic-to-lipophilic balance form membranes that are highly permeable to hydrophilic molecules. Polymersomes with this type of membrane enable the controllable release of molecules without membrane rupture. However, these polymersomes are difficult to assemble because of their low hydrophobicity. Here, we report a microfluidic approach to the production of these polymersomes using double-emulsion drops with ultrathin shells as templates. The small thickness of the middle oil phase enables the attraction of the hydrophobic blocks of the polymers adsorbed at each of the oil/water interfaces of the double emulsions; this results in the dewetting of the oil from the surface of the innermost water drops of the double emulsions and the ultimate formation of the polymersome. This approach to polymersome fabrication enables control of the vesicle size and results in the efficient encapsulation of hydrophilic ingredients that can be released through the polymer membrane without membrane rupture. We apply our approach to the fabrication of Pluronic L121 vesicles and characterize the permeability of their membranes. Furthermore, we show that membrane permeability can be tuned by blending different Pluronic polymers. Our work thus describes a route to producing Pluronic vesicles that are useful for the controlled release of hydrophilic ingredients.
具有低亲水-亲脂平衡值的嵌段共聚物形成的膜对亲水分子高度渗透。具有这种类型膜的聚合物囊泡能够在不破坏膜的情况下控制分子的释放。然而,由于其疏水性低,这些聚合物囊泡很难组装。在这里,我们报告了一种使用具有超薄壳的双乳液滴作为模板生产这些聚合物囊泡的微流控方法。中间油相的小厚度能够吸引吸附在双乳液的每个油水界面的聚合物的疏水性嵌段;这导致油从双乳液的最内水相的表面去湿,最终形成聚合物囊泡。这种聚合物囊泡的制造方法能够控制囊泡的大小,并实现对亲水性成分的有效封装,这些成分可以通过聚合物膜释放而不会破坏膜。我们将我们的方法应用于 Pluronic L121 囊泡的制造,并表征了它们的膜的渗透性。此外,我们表明通过混合不同的 Pluronic 聚合物可以调整膜的渗透性。因此,我们的工作描述了一种生产 Pluronic 囊泡的方法,该方法可用于控制亲水分子的释放。