Tag Archives: Hyomin Lee

Making perfume molecules last longer

If the thought of having expensive perfume last longer is appealing then this research will pique your interest. From a Feb. 17, 2016 American Chemical Society (ACS) news release, also on EurekAlert, (Note: Links have been removed),

Fragrances can be powerful. They can sooth or revitalize, evoke the forest or sea, and remind us of the past. To capture them, manufacturers infuse scents into products from toilet bowl cleaners to luxury perfumes. But once released from a bottle, fragrances evaporate quickly. Now researchers report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces a new way to encapsulate fragrance molecules to make a product’s scent last.

The challenge with creating long-lasting fragrances is that aroma molecules tend to be small and volatile. That means they can sneak through barriers easily and disperse quickly. Some methods have been developed to prevent fragrance molecules from hastily escaping from a spritz of perfume or a dollop of lotion. For example, one process slows down the molecules by packaging them in microcapsules. But the technique is inefficient and doesn’t control for shell size, thickness or structure, which makes it harder to work with. David A. Weitz and colleagues wanted to figure out a new strategy using microfluidic and bulk emulsification to encapsulate fragrances.

First, to get a homogeneous mixture of water and α-pinene molecules — found in oils from pine trees and rosemary — the researchers emulsified them (think blending together two ingredients like oil and vinegar that normally separate). Pumping the emulsion into tiny glass microfluidic tubes created uniform microcapsules. Testing showed that the capsules successfully slowed the release of α-pinene. In addition to its use in the fragrance industry, the researchers say the technique could have applications in drug delivery or other areas.

The authors acknowledge funding from Procter & Gamble Co., the National Science Foundation, the Harvard Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Encapsulation and Enhanced Retention of Fragrance in Polymer Microcapsules by Hyomin Lee, Chang-Hyung Choi, Alireza Abbaspourrad, Chris Wesner, Marco Caggioni, Taotao Zhu, and David A. Weitz. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2016, 8 (6), pp 4007–4013 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b11351 Publication Date (Web): January 22, 2016

Copyright © 2016 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.