Quantitative characterization of membrane formation process of alginate–chitosan microcapsules by GPC

The semi-permeable membrane of alginate–chitosan (AC) microcapsules has been proven important to control the microcapsule stability and selective substance diffusion rate. Therefore, a novel and operable methodology based on gel permeation chromatography (GPC) was established for quantitative characterization of the membrane formation process, so as to provide guidance on performance improvement of AC microcapsules in biomedical applications. Not only the molecular weight (Mw) and its distribution of chitosan can be obtained by GPC, but also the area integral of molecular weight peaks can be linearly correlated to chitosan concentration in certain range. The dynamic membrane formation process was then obtained by quantitatively analyzing reaction amount of chitosan with time, which showed that for chitosan molecules with wide Mw distribution, only parts of molecules bind with alginate to form microcapsule membrane. Moreover, the contribution of chitosan molecules participating in the membrane formation process was also different. These new findings, therefore, are helpful for adjusting and controlling the membrane formation process and properties of microcapsule membrane.