DEVELOPMENT OF AN ELECTRONIC AEROSOL SYSTEM FOR GENERATING MICROCAPSULES

The encapsulation of living cells in a variety of soft polymers or hydrogels is important, particularly for the generation of microtissues. Various techniques have been developed for the production of microcapsules to encapsulate cells but presented threat to the cells due to the harsh treatment during the encapsulation process. In this paper, we propose a simple, economic and compact design of aerosol electronic system for producing different sizes of microcapsules. The aerosol system was developed with the incorporation of a conventional syringe pump and a customised air pump. The syringe pump purged the droplets of sodium alginate and air pump dispersed the droplets into microdroplets of sodium alginate which was then polymerised in the calcium chloride solution. In this system, the air flow rate from the air pump was controlled by a programmed microcontroller that received input instructions from a potentiometer. The suitable air flow rates that worked synchronously with the speed of the syringe pump were characterised. At 0.2 and 0.3 L/min of air flow and 20 mu l/min of alginate solution flow, this device successfully generated round microcapsules with various sizes ranging from 100 to 350 mu m.