Membrane emulsification

Membrane emulsification (ME) is a relatively novel technique for producing all types of single and multiple emulsions for DDS (drug delivery systems), solid micro carriers for encapsulation of drug or nutrient, solder particles for surface-mount technology, mono dispersed polymer microspheres (for analytical column packing, enzyme carriers, liquid crystal display spacers, toner core particles).

[1][2][3][4][5][6] Membrane emulsification was introduced by Nakashima and Shimizu in the late 1980s in Japan.

Emulsified droplets are formed and detached at the end of the pores with a drop-by-drop mechanism.

The advantages of membrane emulsification over conventional emulsification processes are that it enables one to obtain very fine emulsions of controlled droplet sizes and narrow droplet size distributions.

[12][13] High dispersed phase flux has now been shown to be possible using single-pass annular gap crossflow membranes.