CHAPTER 10: Emulsion Drops as Templates for the Fabrication of Microparticles and Capsules

Emulsion drops are frequently used as templates to fabricate microparticles and capsules whose size scales with that of the emulsion drops. Microfluidics offers unique control over the size of emulsion drops, thereby enabling the fabrication of microparticles and capsules with very narrow size distributions. This level of control opens up possibilities to use microparticles and capsules as individually dispersed delivery vehicles that offer a tight control over the release kinetics of active ingredients. It also enables the assembly of microparticles into crystalline superstructures. Thereby, it provides possibilities to use emulsion drops as building blocks to fabricate macroscopic materials with well-defined microstructures. This chapter gives an overview of the strategies to convert emulsion drops into microparticles and capsules of well-defined dimensions and compositions and provides some prominent examples of applications.