Gelled non-toxic microemulsions

Abstract

Bicontinuous microemulsions gelled with a low molecular weight gelator (LMWG) have been found to be an orthogonally self-assembled system, i.e. the bicontinuous microstructure of the microemulsion and the fibrillar gel network form independently but simultaneously. Gelled non-toxic microemulsions have great potential to work as transdermal drug delivery systems because the non-toxic microemulsion provides optimum solubilization for drugs, while the gel network provides mechanical stability. In this work, we formulated gelled non-toxic bicontinuous microemulsions with an LMWG and investigated their formation via orthogonal self-assembly. Moreover, we provided a prototype for novel drug delivery systems.