Microencapsulation by coacervation of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) IV. Effect of the processing parameters on coacervation and encapsulation

Attention has been paid to phase separation of poly (lactide-co-glycolide) solutions in CH2Cl2 induced by the addition of a silicone oil in order to promote protein microencapsulation. Since the process is very fast, the system is anytime out of equilibrium. The effect of the main processing parameters on the microencapsulation process has been analyzed and has highlighted that kinetics of the main encapsulation steps has a great effect on the characteristics of the final microspheres. These results have been discussed on the basis of a physico-chemical study of coacervation reported in previous papers of this series.