Article pubs.acs.org/Langmuir
Preparation of Calcium Alginate Nanoparticles Using Water-in-Oil (W/O) Nanoemulsions Alexandra H. E. Machado,*,†,‡ Dan Lundberg,†,§ António J. Ribeiro,‡ Francisco J. Veiga,‡ Björn Lindman,†,§ Maria G. Miguel,§ and Ulf Olsson† †
Division of Physical Chemistry, Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden ‡ Center for Pharmaceutical Studies, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal § Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra, 3004-535 Coimbra, Portugal S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: A procedure for the preparation of calcium alginate nanoparticles in the aqueous phase of water-in-oil (W/O) nanoemulsions was developed. The emulsions were produced from mixtures of the nonionic surfactant tetraethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C12E4), decane, and aqueous solutions of up to 2 wt % sodium alginate by means of the phase inversion temperature (PIT) emulsification method. This method allows the preparation of finely dispersed emulsions without a large input of mechanical energy. With alginate concentrations of 1−2 wt % in the aqueous phase, emulsions showed good stability against Ostwald ripening and narrow, monomodal distributions of droplets with radii
