Three-Fluid Nozzle Spray Drying Strategy for Efficient Fabrication of Functional Colloidosomes

Colloidosomes as Pickering emulsion microcapsules are expected to serve various applications, including encapsulation of drugs and loading of functional materials. Normally, when using colloidosomes for drug encapsulation, the latex particles as shell materials need to be mixed with drugs before the assembly process. However, this procedure may cause aggregation of latex particles, thereby resulting in disordered assembled shells or a low loading efficiency. Herein, we propose a three-fluid nozzle spray drying process to efficiently assemble latex particles of P(styrene (St)-co-butyl acrylate (BA)) into colloidosomes. The three-fluid nozzle spray drying equipment allows for the preparation for drug encapsulation without advance mixing of drug and shell materials. This strategy enables the construction of colloidosomes with uniform and controllable pores and the loading of functional materials. The effects of the compressed air flow rate, inlet temperature, feed rate, and solid content were explored, revealing the formation mechanism of colloidosomes during the spray drying process. Doxycycline hydrochloride (DH) was encapsulated in colloidosomes for controllable release, and the sustained release time is up to 100 h. The release rate can be adjusted by varying the glass transition temperature (Tg) and size of latex particles. Furthermore, Fe3O4 nanoparticle (NP)-loaded colloidosomes were constructed by this strategy. The magnetic response intensity of colloidosomes can be modulated by varying the amount of Fe3O4 NPs. The anticancer drug encapsulation and loading of other functional particles were also explored to expand applications.