2004 Volume 37 Issue 5 Pages 592-596
Nylon-polystyrene microcapsules sensitive to outside stimuli such as an external electric field were prepared by the combination of interfacial polymerization and solvent evaporation techniques. A ferroelectric liquid crystal monomer possessing both the mesogenic group and chirality was much effective as a functional component which responds to an external electrical field. The liquid crystal is extremely sensitive to the outside stimuli, because it has spontaneous polarization. The microcapsules immobilizing the liquid crystal could control the permeability of oxprenolol, which is used as an encapsulated core material, compared to that of the microcapsule without liquid crystals under the external intermittent electrical field. In addition, we characterized the electro-responsive controlled release mechanism by the polarized light transmittance measurement.
