Preparation of chitin microcapsule by pickering emulsion template

Abstract

Microcapsule has been known and used for many years due to its own several advantages. Microcapsule has been mostly used to encapsulate substrate or ingredient to protect from degradation. The aim of this research was to evaluate the possibility of the fabrication of microcapsule using Pickering emulsion template. Chitin particles had been used to stabilize the emulsion by dispersing in water phase. The wettability of chitin particles was investigated using contact angle meter. The contact angle was Ɵ = 52.05±3.19. It showed that chitin particle contains with the hydrophilic part more than the hydrophobic part. The aqueous phase was emulsified with n-hexane using probe type ultrasonic. The stable chitin microcapsule using pickering emulsion templated fabrication was successfully prepared. When the chitin concentration was increased (at the constant water-to-oil ratio 8:2), the emulsion droplets size increased but the emulsion index was almost the same in every concentration because the increasing of the chitin particles gave enough particles for complete coverage and formed the multilayer at the interface of the emulsion droplets. After that, The microcapsule structure was observed using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The micrographs showed that chitin particles have the round shape like granule. There was the densely packed of the particles at the interface that supposed to be the packing of chitin particles. The results showed that the microcapsule was formed by the assembly of chitin particles.