Dynamics and stability of dispersions of polyelectrolyte-filled multilayer microcapsules

The authors report dynamic and coagulation properties of a dispersion of polyelectrolyte multilayer microcapsules filled with solutions of a strong polyelectrolyte. Microcapsules are shown to take a charge of the sign of encapsulated polyions and are characterized by a nonuniform distribution of inner polyions, which indicates a semipermeability of the shell and a leakage of counterions. The capsule self-diffusion coefficient in the vicinity of the similarly charged wall is measured using a particle tracking procedure from confocal images of the dispersion. The diffusion of capsules in the force field suggests that the effective interaction potential contains an electrostatic barrier, so that we deal with the same types of interaction forces as for solid particles. The theoretical estimates of the authors show that when microcapsules are in close proximity, their interaction should even be quantitatively the same as that of colloids with the same surface potential. However, due to the mobility of inner polyions they might repel stronger at large distances. The authors thus conclude that the encapsulation of charged polymers is an important factor in determining the adhesion and interaction properties of multilayer microcapsules.