1. Destruction of polylactic acid microcapsules under ultrasound irradiation
- Author
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Kentaro Nakamura, Shu Suematsu, Yoshiaki Watanabe, Yukako Kato, Kenji Yoshida, Daisuke Koyama, and Hiraku Tabata
- Subjects
Materials science ,Acoustics and Ultrasonics ,business.industry ,Ultrasound ,Shell (structure) ,Radius ,Biocompatible material ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Polylactic acid ,chemistry ,Pressure amplitude ,Center frequency ,business ,Ultrasound irradiation ,Biomedical engineering - Abstract
Hollow microcapsules have been considered for potential applications as drug or gene carriers. This paper describes an investigation into the mechanical properties of microcapsules with a biocompatible polylactic acid (PLA) shell that can be destroyed using ultrasound irradiation. The microcapsules had a radius of 1 to 25 μm and a shell thickness of 100 nm to 3 μm, and their response to ultrasound pulses with a center frequency of 700 kHz to 2 MHz was investigated. It was found that approximately 50% of capsules with a radius of 20 μm were destroyed using pulses with a pressure amplitude of 50 kPa and a frequency of 700 kHz, which is close to the resonance frequency of the capsules.
- Published
- 2014