Shaping characteristics in alginate hydrogel encapsulation via a two-fluid spraying method

• Published in: JCT research Vol. 15; no. 5; pp. 1157 - 1165
• Main Authors: Seong, Baekhoon, Kim, Jihoon, Jung, Sejin, Kang, Giho, Lee, Jinkee, Byun, Doyoung, Lee, Kwang-Soo, Jang, Hyung-Seok, Ko, Jin Hwan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Antifouling coatings; Calcium ions; Chemistry and Materials Science; Corrosion and Coatings; Droplets; Encapsulation; Hydrogels; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Liposomes; Mass production; Materials Science; Nozzles; Polymer Sciences; Post-processing; Sodium alginate; Spraying; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Tribology; Coating; Spraying; Hydrogel encapsulation; Shaping
• ISSN: 1547-0091; 1935-3804; 2168-8028
• DOI: 10.1007/s11998-018-0060-9

Recently, an alginate hydrogel containing amphiphilic liposomes was suggested for application to an antifouling coating. In this study, we investigate the shaping characteristics of the alginate hydrogel by a spraying method for application to the coating. Sodium alginate droplets from the spraying nozzle are known to be differently shaped by several external forces during the encapsulation process when such a droplet impacts onto the surfaces of liquid containing calcium ions. We adopted a two-fluid spraying method for fast alginate droplets with a scalable size suitable for mass production. Various shapes, such as mushroom, petal, sphere, and thin-sheet alginate hydrogel shapes containing liposomes, were obtained via this experimental approach. Supported by a theoretical analysis, we determined regimes for the various shapes depending on the droplet size and the concentration of the sodium alginate solution. Alginate hydrogel of different shapes based on the regimes will be used for the coating throughout a different post-processing.