Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

First Advisor

Dr. Lifeng Zhang

Abstract

Microencapsulation is a technique by which solid, liquid or gaseous active ingredients are enclosed within a shell material for the purpose of shielding the active ingredient from surrounding environment. The product therefrom is valuable as an active ingredient carrier and controlled release vehicle. In this research, polymer micro/nanocapsules with enclosed aqueous solution were synthesized through O/W emulsion-solvent evaporation technique. Specifically a commercial textile dye was encapsulated in poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) micro/nanocapsules for an innovation of textile dyeing. A variety of synthesis parameters were studied including concentration of polymer, amount of dye, amount of surfactant, volume of surfactant aqueous solution, solvent evaporation temperature, and stirring speed. The obtained PMMA/dye capsules had average diameters from hundreds of nanometers to tens of micrometers with encapsulation efficiency ranging from 58% to 76%. FTIR and DSC results further confirmed the capsule structure of PMMA/dye. This work demonstrated a promising approach to enclose solution of active reagent in polymer micro/nanocapsules with good encapsulation efficiency.

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