Small scale manufacturing of anti-inflammatory powder-covered liquid marbles. An experimental approach on designing Pickering-like emulsions for topical application

摘要

Superhydrophobicity attracted researchers’ attention since the discovery of surfaces with special architectures. An important exponent is represented by particle enwrapped droplets, called liquid marbles. These special formations, known as “soft objects” are made of a liquid core wrapped in a solid shell. Liquid marbles covered in anti-inflammatory powders were previously obtained using salicylic acid as a model hydrophobic powder. The aim of this study is to establish an investigation method regarding the wettability of the model powders in correlation with liquid marbles’ formation and with their stability in an external phase. Besides salicylic acid, niflumic acid and ketoprofen are used as shells. The next step of the experiments is represented by immersing previously manufactured liquid marbles into an oily phase (paraffin and coconut oil), resulting in Pickering-like emulsions, which are proposed as models in topical emulsions design, aiming a local anti-inflammatory and cosmetic effect.