Designing nanoemulsion templates for fabrication of dextrin nanoparticles via emulsion cross-linking technique

The aim of this study was to prepare dextrin nanoparticles by emulsion cross-linking technique. The nanoparticles were prepared from nanoemulsion templates produced by high power ultrasonication. The influence of hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (HLB), surfactant type and concentration, water content, and sonication time on the template size were examined in order to find optimal conditions for preparing dextrin nanoparticles. Nano-scaled templates were achieved when mixed surfactants (Span80/Tween80 and Span80/Brij30) at HLB 6 were used while using Span80 or other HLB values resulted in micron-sized templates. The smallest emulsion templates were achieved when using 7% (w/w) mixture of Span80/Tween80 at HLB 6, 15% (w/w) water, and sonication time of 30 min. The spherical dextrin nanoparticles possessed a slight negative charge on the surface. FTIR spectra confirmed that dextrin was cross-linked by glyoxal. This study developed a novel way of formulating dextrin nanoparticles, which may prove to be useful in future for drug delivery.