Coacervation is a phase separation process involving two aqueous phases, one solute-phase and one solute-poor phase. It is frequently observed among oppositely-charged polyelectrolyte systems. We focus on self-coacervation involving a single polymer chain and investigate its potential for encapsulation applications.

Coacervates stabilized by a microgel monolayer represent a unique strategy to build colloidosomes from all-aqueous emulsion drops, while exploiting the sequestration and dissolution properties of the coacervates.

[1] R. Toor, A. Neujahr Copstein, C. Trébuchet, B. Goudeau, P. Garrigue, V. Lapeyre, A. Perro, V. Ravaine, Submitted

[2] R. Toor, L. Hourdin, S. Shanmugathasan, P. Lefrançois, S. Arbault, V. Lapeyre, L. Bouffier, J.-P. Douliez, V. Ravaine and A. Perro, Enzymatic cascade reaction in simple-coacervates. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science (2023).

[3] A. Perro, N. Coudon, J.-P. Chapel, N. Martin, L. Béven and J.-P. Douliez, Building micro-capsules using water-in-water emulsion droplets as templates, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 613 (2022) 681–696.

[4] J.-P. Douliez, N. Martin, A. Perro and L. Béven, Stabilization of all-in-water emulsions to form capsules as artificial cells. ChemBioChem., 20 (20), 2546-2552 (2019).

[5] A. Perro, L. Giraud, N. Coudon, S. Shanmugathasan, B. Goudeau J.-P. Douliez and V. Ravaine, Self-coacervation of ampholyte polymer chains as an efficient encapsulation strategy. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 548, 275-283 (2019).