Smart Controlled Release of Small Molecules

人们越来越需要设计方法来稳定液体中的活性成分，并控制它们在正确的时间释放到正确的地点，涵盖了广泛的工业应用，特别是在小分子领域。例如，从织物或化妆品中控制香水的释放，向海鱼幼体输送人工饲料，食品管道中的杀菌剂，软质家具或树叶上的杀虫剂，染料或油墨，粘合剂，以及体内的药物。实现这些目标的最好方法是使用微胶囊。然而，控制核心化学物质的稳定性和释放已被证明没有被很好地理解。特别是，控制小分子的泄漏是非常具有挑战性的，到目前为止还没有实现，这限制了微胶囊的影响和广泛应用的适用性。提出了一种双壳微胶囊的制备方法，它结合了触发释放(外加机械力可以破坏外壳)和缓释(内壳具有一定渗透性)的概念。本项目的目的是研制和表征具有理想结构和机械性能的新型双壳微囊，以实现小分子活性成分的稳定和受控释放，通过化学工程(布里斯托尔大学的J Preess教授和B Vincent教授团队)和化学(布里斯托尔大学的J Preess教授和B文森特教授团队)以及学术小组和两家国际公司之间的合作，美国的Appleton Paper Inc.作为工业微囊的制造商在英国拥有三个生产基地，而英国的宝洁公司(D.York‘s Technology Breakthrough Group)作为微胶囊的最终用户。

There is a growing need to devise methods for stabilisation of active ingredients in liquid and control of their release to the right place at right time, covering a wide range of industrial applications, particularly in the area of small sized molecules. Examples include controlled release of perfumes from fabrics or cosmetic products, delivery of artificial diets to marine fish larvae, bacteriacides in food pipelines, insecticides on soft furnishings or foliage, dyes or inks, adhesives, and drugs in the body. The best way to achieve these objectives is using microcapsules. However, controlling the stability and release of the core chemicals have been proven to be not well understood. In particular, controlling leakage of small molecules is extremely challenging and has not been achieved so far, which has limited the impact and suitability of microcapsules for wide applications. It is proposed to prepare microcapsules having dual shells, which combines the concepts of triggered release (the outer shell may be broken by applied mechanical force) and sustained release (the inner shell with certain permeability). The aim of this project is to formulate and characterise novel double-shell microcapsules with desirable structure and mechanical properties in order to realise stabilisation and controlled delivery of active ingredients made of small molecules, via collaboration between chemical engineering (Professor Z Zhang's group) and chemistry (Professor J Preece and Professor B Vincent, Polymer and Colloid Group in the University Bristol), and between the academic groups and two international companies Appleton Paper Inc., USA, which has three manufacture sites in the UK as a manufacturer of industrial microcapsules and Procter and Gamble, UK (Professor D. York's Technology Breakthrough Group) as an end user of microcapsules.