The Wonders Of Nano Encapsulation

By Nita McKinney


Nano encapsulation is a process in which tiny particles and droplets are surrounded by coating to give out small capsules that has useful properties. These small capsules often have diameters between micrometers to a few millimeters. This has been widely used in most foods. Each class of a certain food is encapsulated, mostly with flavors. The technique would often vary depending on the physical and chemical properties of the material.

There are several reasons why these methods has been further developed. Mostly, a specific core will be taken away and isolated from its environment same as isolating vitamins from the decaying effects that are caused by oxygen. Using such may further improve the handling property of a particular sticky substance. Pesticides also make use of such to minimize volatilization risks and leaching.

The walls must definitely be ruptured upon use even though its aim is just to isolate the core from the environment. This can be simply done by putting shear stress or pressure in it. Some enzyme attacks, solvent actions, chemical reactions and hydrolysis can even be considered in breaking it.

There are also techniques that can be done in this process. Still, new techniques are continuously developed and studied. Pan coating would be the most popular especially in the pharmaceutical industry. It is the oldest procedure that they are using to form and coat small tablets. The particles will be placed in a pan or some other device while the coating material is slowly applied.

Another technique would be the centrifugal extrusion where all liquids will be encapsulated by using a certain rotating bump head. As it slowly rotates, a solvent might be released from the solution. Such process is applicable to particles that have smaller diameters. This is also limited for liquid substances as well.

This can be used to release a certain drug slowly into a body. This will minimize the side effects that are caused by toxins that is present in various medicines by simply preventing the blood to incur a high initial concentration. A certain pattern is recommended in releasing it. The usual pattern is the first order where certain rate will lessen exponentially until the drug source will be exhausted.

These processes offer different levels of complexity, capacity and operating cost with relative comparisons. These can all be applied in various areas such as pharmaceuticals, food and nutriceuticals, consumer and diversified products and some agricultural and industrial fields. This might also be used to embed a certain fragrance for some brands of perfume. It can also be used to further extend the shelf life and stability of various commodities such as vitamins.

A nanocapsule usually has several shapes and sizes. It could have many compositions as well. A certain encapsulated particle may take a uniform or regular appearance and it can also have an irregular and odd shape.

Nano encapsulation definitely made its way up to this time. Before, it was only considered a smaller process of microencapsulation. Still, it is similar to such particularly the techniques that are used in production. Because of technology, things has greatly improved and life became easier and simpler through the years.




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