Modification of reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (MrGO) is an effective strategy to increase their dispersability and hydrophobicity in order to fabricate alginate microspheres via crosslingking stable Pickering alginate emulsions stabilized by MrGO, in where alginate aqueous solution is the dispersed phase and an organic solvent the continuous phase. The effects of MrGO concentration, water/oil ratio and salt concentration on the alginate spheres were investigated, and the results shows that MrGO could efficiently stabilize alginate spheres in suitable conditions and increasing the MrGO concentration or the oil/water ratio was favorable to the formation of alginate spheres. Using this method, alginate microspheres loaded with drug were easily fabricated and their release properties at different conditions were discussed.
Keywords: alginate microspheres; ionic crosslinking; modification; reduced graphene oxide; stable.