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Continuous Droplet Interface Crossing Encapsulation (cDICE) : from vesicles to capsules
The Continuous Droplet Interface Crossing Encapsulation (cDICE) is an easy and robust method for producing, at high yield, monodisperse lipid vesicles with a controlled content as well as capsules with a designed shell. It consists in forcing a droplet through an interface between two imiscible fluids, using an external force such as centrifugation. At high inertia, the droplet entrain fluid that will constitute the shell of the capsule. At low inertia, the presence of amphiphile and the deformable interface interactions lead to monolayers zipping and formation of an amphiphile bilayer around the droplet. We will discuss the physical mechanisms involved in the production of both cDICE vesicles (low droplets inertia) and capsules (at high inertia), and the potential applications of this method. This method founds indeed many applications in biomimetics as it allows to encapsulate various biological solutions (biopolymers, hemoglobin, colloids, polymeric gels, cells…) in membranes that can be composite and/or assymetric, or polymeric, and in the field of microencapsulation.