Supercritical Antisolvent Precipitation from an Emulsion: ß-carotene nanoparticle formation

FACUNDO MATTEA; ÁNGEL MARTÍN; MARÍA JOSÉ COCERO

Arcachon

Congreso; 9th International Symposium on SuperCritical Fluids New trends in Supercritical Fluids: Energy, Materials, Processing; 2009

ICMCB; RAPSODEE; LATEP

Supercritical fluids have been extensively used for particle production with many natural substances [1]. For carotenoid particle production one of the most desirable properties is to lower the particles size and improve their application in aqueous solutions. The usual supercritical precipitation processes, like supercritical antisolvent process, gas antisolvent process, or rapid expansion from a solution are not suitable to produce carotenoid particles with a mean size below the micrometer scale [2]. A new approach to overcome this limitation is to produce the antisolvent precipitation inside the dispersed phase of an emulsion, and therefore to control the maximum size of the particle with the droplet size of the emulsion. In this work, the application of the antisolvent precipitation of the dispersed phase of an emulsion containing ß-carotene has been studied. The effect of the process variables on different product properties as particle size and morphology, and residual organic solvent content. Also, In order to obtain a deeper knowledge on the fundamentals of the process, the effect of carbon dioxide on the organic solvent/water interface was studied with a visual cell apparatus. 1. Jung, J. & Perrut, M. (2001). Particle design using supercritical fluids: Literature and patent survey. The Journal of Supercritical Fluids. 20(3). 179-219