Designing nanoemulsion templates for fabrication of dextrin nanoparticles via emulsion cross-linking technique

The aim of this study was to prepare dextrin nanoparticles by emulsion cross-linking technique. The nanoparticles were prepared from nanoemulsion templates produced by high power ultrasonication. The influence of hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), surfactant type and concentration, water content, and sonication time on the template size were examined in order to find optimal conditions for preparing dextrin nanoparticles. Nano-scaled templates were achieved when mixed surfactants (Span80/Tween80 and Span80/Brij30) at HLB 6 were used while using Span80 or other HLB values resulted in micron-sized templates. The smallest emulsion templates were achieved when using 7% (w/w) mixture of Span80/Tween80 at HLB 6, 15% (w/w) water, and sonication time of 30 min. The spherical dextrin nanoparticles possessed a slight negative charge on the surface. FTIR spectra confirmed that dextrin was cross-linked by glyoxal. This study developed a novel way of formulating dextrin nanoparticles, which may prove to be useful in future for drug delivery.