A Comparative Study of Several Techniques to Obtain Fatty Acid Nanoparticles: Palmitic Acid

The aim of this study is to obtain fatty acid nanoparticles, especially of palmitic acid. Some synthetic paths were carried out: reprecipitation method, hot homogenization technique, and microemulsions. A qualitative comparison of particle size obtained with these and traditional methods such as dissolution/evaporation, melting/quenching, and sublimation were performed. The hot homogenization technique with addition of small amounts of aluminum chloride has been found to be suitable to obtain a narrow distribution of nanoparticles. Electron diffraction was attempted to characterize the crystal form obtained from the hot homogenization technique; nevertheless, the obtained phase cannot be identified due to overlapping reflections of the different fatty acid phases.