A pilot study of freeze drying of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) nanocapsules stabilized by poly(vinyl alcohol): formulation and process optimization.

A common limitation of using polymeric nanoparticles in aqueous suspension is due to their poor chemical and physical stability when conserved for a long time. Therefore, freeze drying of these colloidal systems is an alternative method to achieve long-term stability. Nanocapsules have thin and fragile shell structure, which may not resist to the stress of such process. The aim of this study is to investigate the formulation and process parameters in order to ensure the stability of polycaprolactone nanocapsules (PCL NC) by freeze drying. In this paper, we studied the freeze drying of PCL NC prepared by the emulsion-diffusion method and stabilized by poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Different parameters have been tested throughout the freeze-thawing study including PVA and PCL concentration, cooling rate, cryoprotectant concentrations, nature of encapsulated oil and NC purification. On the other hand, nanocapsules have been freeze dried both before and after purification. Freeze dried purified PCL NC were characterized by particle size measurement, collapse temperature, T'g determination, scanning electron microscope observation, environmental scanning electron microscope imaging and residual humidity quantification. Finally, the effect of annealing on the NC stability and the sublimation rate has been well explored. The results suggest that PCL NC could be freeze dried without a cryoprotectant if the concentration of PVA stabilizer is sufficient (5%), while for the purified NC the addition of 5% of cryoprotectant seems to be necessary to ensure the stability of NC. The type of cryoprotectants had practically negligible effects on the size and the rehydration of freeze dried nanocapsules. The annealing process could accelerate the sublimation with the conservation of nanocapsules size.