The effect of some processing conditions on the characteristics of biodegradable microspheres obtained by an emulsion solvent evaporation process

Unloaded microspheres were prepared from polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polyhydroxybutyrate-co-valerate (PHB-HV) polymers using an oil-in-water emulsion solvent evaporation method. The study was conducted to evaluate how the polymer and some process parameters affect properties of the final microspheres such as particle size, superficial area, zeta potential, surface morphology and microsphere degradation. The variables included surfactant concentration in the emulsion water phase and solvent composition. From the results, it was found that the parameters affecting microsphere size the most were surfactant concentration in the emulsion water phase and solvent composition. Properties such as zeta potential, surface area and surface morphology remained pratically unchanged over the range of the processing conditions studied here.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Maia,J. L., Santana,M. H. A., Ré,M. I.
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Brazilian Society of Chemical Engineering 2004
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-66322004000100002
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!