Fluorescently conjugated chitosan from Akina, Inc used for microcapsule formation

PolySciTech division of Akina, Inc. provides a variety of modified chitosan products (https://akinainc.com/polyscitech/products/Kitopure/index.php) as well as other polymers and research products. Chitosan has a net positive charge due to amine units along the chain. When chitosan interacts with a negatively charged polymer the two bind together due to ionic attraction between the polymer chains forming what is called a polyelectrolyte complex. Recently, researchers at Yale University and the Université Paris Diderot, used fluorescently conjugated chitosan (a cationic polymer) from Akina, Inc. along with sulfonated styrene (an anionic polymer) to generate microcapsules held together by the polyelectrolyte complex formed between these two polymers. Read more: Kaufman, Gilad, Rostislav Boltyanskiy, Siamak Nejati, Abdou R. Thiam, Michael Loewenberg, Eric R. Dufresne, and Chinedum O. Osuji. "Single-step microfluidic fabrication of soft monodisperse polyelectrolyte microcapsules by interfacial complexation." Lab Chip 14, no. 18 (2014): 3494-3497. http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2014/lc/c4lc00482e Full-Text: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Siamak_Nejati/publication/263933420_Single-step_microfluidic_fabrication_of_soft_monodisperse_polyelectrolyte_microcapsules_by_interfacial_complexation/links/5419c56c0cf2218008bf9faa.pdf

“Abstract: Common methods for fabrication of polyelectrolyte microcapsules rely on a multi-step process. We propose a single-step approach to generate polyelectrolyte microcapsules with 1–2 μm shells based on polyelectrolyte complexation across a water/oil droplet interface and study the effect of parameters controlling the polyelectrolyte complexation on shell thickness.”