Electrostatic micro- and nanoencapsulation and electroemulsification: A brief review

Abstract

Electrospraying is a method of liquid atomization that utilizes electrical forces to overcome the surface tension force. The droplets obtained by electrospraying are charged and for certain modes can be nanometers in size. The charge and size of the droplets can be controlled to some extent by liquid flow rate and the voltage applied to the nozzle. In recent years, electrospraying was tested as a ‘bottom-up’ technology for building nanostructures from elementary components obtained from fine droplets or submicron jets after solvent evaporation, such as thin films, nanoparticles or nanofibres. It was also tested as a tool for the production of micro- and nanoemulsions and micro- and nanocapsules. Research in this field was aimed at developing new drug delivery systems or medicine production and application of this technique in cosmetic and food industries. Electro-encapsulation was also used as a tool for nanocomposite materials fabrication. The paper reviews various methods based on electrospraying used for electro-emulsification and micro- and nanoencapsulation. Numerous scientific and engineering contributions in this field are presented in this paper.

Keywords::

• Electrospraying
• electrohydrodynamic spraying
• nanotechnology
• microencapsulation
• nanoencapsulation
• electro-emulsification
• biotechnology

Acknowledgements

The paper is supported by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the Project No. 4078/T02/2007/32.