I am planning to prepare a polymer microsphere by w/o the emulsion technique. However, I got some doubt at the step where the water phase is slowly dripped into the oil phase which was undergoing continuous mechanical stirring.
1. Few literature, did heating of oil phase (containing surfactant) around 50-60 degrees C while continuously stirring through an agitator or a magnetic stirrer.
Reference: Zhang, D., Ouyang, Q., Hu, Z., Lu, S., Quan, W., Li, P., ... & Li, S. (2021). Catechol functionalized chitosan/active peptide microsphere hydrogel for skin wound healing. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 173, 591-606.
2. While other literature suggested cooling of the oil phase either to 4 degrees or keeping the container in an ice bath under continuous mechanical stirring while dripping the water phase into the oil phase.
Reference: a) Zeng, W., Huang, J., Hu, X., Xiao, W., Rong, M., Yuan, Z., & Luo, Z. (2011). Ionically cross-linked chitosan microspheres for controlled release of bioactive nerve growth factor. International journal of pharmaceutics, 421(2), 283-290.
b) Zeng, W., Rong, M., Hu, X., Xiao, W., Qi, F., Huang, J., & Luo, Z. (2014). Incorporation of chitosan microspheres into collagen-chitosan scaffolds for the controlled release of nerve growth factor. PloS one, 9(7), e101300.
3) While other literature performed the heating process during the addition of the water phase into oil phase for better stability, which was followed by keeping it in an ice bath.
Reference: Liu, L., Lv, Q., Zhang, Q., Zhu, H., Liu, W., Deng, G., ... & Li, L. (2017). Preparation of carboxymethyl chitosan microspheres and their application in hemostasis. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 11(6), 660-667.
Please answer my above queries regarding the appropriate temperature of the oil phase when the water phase will be slowly poured into it.
I am attaching all the above-mentioned pdf. research papers and also highlighted the lines in the methodology section where I am having doubts.
The most appropriate method to prepare emulsion-mediated microsphere is heating followed by cooling approach. During emulsion preparation, the temperature should be kept high for uniformity and stability of the emulsion droplets. On the other hand, at the time of microsphere preparation, the temperature should be kept low because only the low temperature favours their ideal formation.
Hello!
Hope this helps you.
In order to prepare a microsphere, both the oil and water phase should be heated at around 60 C, add the oil slowly to the water with continuous stirring an appropriate speed and maintain the same temperature throughout the addition. Followed by this you can cool down the mixture.
Please go through doi: 10.1186/1477-3155-9-44
Regards,
Gayathri
Thank you both Neela Gayathri Ganesan and Pawandeep Kour for your reply.
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