"Accelerating Commercialization of Drug Delivery and Bio Capsules"... Pukyong National University Develops High-Throughput, Large-Scale Emulsion Microcapsule Manufacturing Platform

The research team led by Professor Hwang Yunho (Department of Polymer Engineering) at Pukyong National University has developed a microfluidic platform that can mass-produce double-emulsion-based microcapsules using 3D printing technology.

An emulsion is a formulation composed of two immiscible liquids, and conventional single emulsions are widely used in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical sectors. However, to manufacture microcapsules such as drug carriers, functional capsules, and microparticles with protective shells, it is essential to produce double emulsions that allow simultaneous control of the internal core and the external shell structure. The structural uniformity of double emulsions is a key factor that determines the size of the microcapsules, the shell thickness, and their release characteristics.

This study was conducted as a joint research project with the team led by Professor Kim Dongpyo at Pohang University of Science and Technology. It is significant in that it presents an expandable process platform that goes beyond single emulsions and enables simultaneous control of both the internal core and external shell structures.

Although double emulsions are indispensable for the fabrication of drug carriers and functional capsules, conventional bulk emulsification methods have made it difficult to precisely control their structure. Microfluidic technologies have also faced limitations, including low production throughput and difficulty in maintaining stable, long-term operation.

Image of a 3D-printed mass-production device for microcapsules.

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According to the research team, they newly designed a 3D-printing-based parallel microfluidic device and applied a technique for uniformly coating silica nanoparticles onto the inner surface under acidic and high-temperature conditions, thereby solving the problem of hydrophilic surface treatment.

In other words, they developed a 3D-printing-based surface treatment technology capable of realizing emulsions. In general, 3D printing materials are chemically stable, which makes hydrophilic surface treatment challenging. However, the research team overcame this limitation by uniformly coating silica nanoparticles on the internal surfaces under acidic and high-temperature conditions. As a result, they achieved, for the first time, continuous and large-scale production of microcapsules via double emulsions on a 3D-printing-based platform.

Through this, they demonstrated that multiple double-emulsion generators can be operated stably in parallel, and that microcapsules templated from double emulsions can be mass-produced with high uniformity and reproducibility. By precisely controlling the ratio of the internal core and the shell structure, they also established a foundation for designing the release characteristics of the microcapsules.

(from left) Professor Hwang Yunho, Pukyong National University; Professor Kim Dongpyo, Pohang University of Science and Technology; Dr. Na Gisu.

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Dr. Na Gisu said, "By developing a 3D-printing-based parallel device, we realized high-speed, large-scale production of double emulsions and demonstrated the scalability of microcapsule processes."

Professor Hwang Yunho explained, "This research goes beyond merely developing a microcapsule manufacturing platform; it enables precise control of the structure and release characteristics of microcapsules, giving it very high academic value and commercial potential, and it can be applied across drug delivery systems, bio capsules, and functional material encapsulation technologies."

The results of this research have been published in the international chemical engineering journal Chemical Engineering Journal.

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