Deposition of soft polymeric capsules on surfaces for prolonged active release

It is evident that current encapsulation methods involve a great amount of energy and materials to produce perfume carriers contained in home- and beauty-care products. Additionally, the deposition and retention of perfumes on target surfaces remains a challenge in cleaning processes as substrates are subjected to multiple rinses during the washing procedure. Therefore, the development of a new encapsulation technology presenting an improved sustainability profile and able to efficiently deliver perfumes on surfaces would contribute to a more effective use of materials, thus significantly lowering the environmental footprint of consumer goods. This Thesis deals with the investigation of soft polymeric microcapsules for the delivery of active ingredients to surfaces during washing processes. The soft microcapsules described here exploit the self-assembly properties of Soluplus®, an amphiphilic poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(vinyl acetate)-poly(vinyl caprolactam) (PEG-PVAc-PVCL) graft copolymer, to encapsulate fragrances and deliver them to various target surfaces. The results presented in this work participate in the expansion of the knowledge on the use of amphiphilic polymers for the targeted delivery of hydrophobic active compounds such as perfumes promoted by microcapsules and/or polymeric micelles.