Effect of surfactant mixing in microspheres preparations using polyblend of poly(lactic acid) and polycaprolactone

Microencapsulation has an important role in the drug delivery system in the medical and pharmaceutical world. As an attempt to improve the therapeutic effect of the drug, microspheres materials are developed by optimizing the size of microspheres and their size distribution to be suitable for drug delivery applications. In this study, poly(lactic acid) and polycaprolactone polyblend with 60:40 (w/w) composition, have been used in the preparation of microspheres through the solvent evaporation (O/W) method using a mixed of common nonionic surfactants, Tween 80 and Span 80 were used as emulsifier. The microspheres size distribution was observed at various compositions (60:40, 50:50, 40:60) and concentrations (0.5-2.5 % (v/v)) of Tween 80/Span 80. The resulting microspheres were round and have diameter distributed around 30.07 μm. Microspheres were also characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Particle Size Analyzer (PSA). The effect of mixing Tween 80 and Span 80 was shown in microspheres size formed, which was similar to the one of Tween 80 (0.375-43.67 μm) and larger than the one of Span 80 (0.375-0.791 μm). The distribution size of the resulting microspheres was slightly narrower than the one with the use of Tween 80. The microspheres physical appearances were observed by optical microscope (OM).