ABSTRACT
Encapsulation can be dened as a process that involves the complete envelopment of preselected core material(s) within a dened porous or impermeable membrane using various techniques.27,55 The main aim of encapsulation could be the immobilization, the protection, the stabilization, and the control of the release of the entrapped compound.9 Indeed, the entrapment of various materials such as avor, living cells, pharmaceutical compounds inside beads for different purposes is of great importance in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and food industries, as well as in agriculture, biotechnology, or medicine.27,39 The compound can be embedded within the polymer network or within an immiscible core phase in the microcapsules.12,19,47 The beads/capsules can be manipulated in order to inuence functionality. The properties that can be tuned include the degree of cross-linking, the size and size distribution, the polymer type, the surface charge, and the particle shape19,47 as shown in Figure 9.1.
