Fabrication of Microcapsule with Liquid Crystalline Nitroxide Radical Shell

Abstract

Microcapsules have attracted attention as carriers for microscopic contents. Moreover, microcapsules with a shell composed of liquid crystalline materials have various functions. Liquid Crystalline nitroxide radicals (LC-NR) show paramagnetic properties, and they can make microcapsules magnetically manipulable as shell materials; such capsules might be applied to drug delivery system (DDS). We have successfully fabricated microcapsules with LC-NR shells using microfluidic devices; however, the lower limit of the diameter of capsules is about 100 µm. We focused on membrane emulsification to downsize the microcapsules. Here, we report the fabrication of microcapsules with LC-NR shells using membrane emulsification. We observed the magnetic manipulation of the microcapsules with LC-NR shells.