Organic Polymers for Encapsulation of Drugs, Food Ingredients and Agrochemicals

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, drugs, food ingredients, and agrochemicals help to improve the quality of life around the world. In the last decade, researchers have developed outstanding systems to use them in a minimal quantity that allows us to reach the desired efficiency and reduce side effects and/or contamination derived from the overuse of these substances. For this goal, the encapsulation of guest molecules has been studied using organic polymers (natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic chains) as platforms with different architecture, such as films, gels, stars, micelles, liposomes, vesicles, polyelectrolyte complexes, etc. These platforms can protect guest compounds against degradation and provide enhanced water solubility, increasing the percentage of substance that is available for biological action. Additionally, the release of guest molecules can be tuned, resulting in an improved effectiveness.

This Special Issue is focused on the collection of current advances in the design of systems involving encapsulation of drugs (antineoplastics, antibiotics, hormones, etc.), food ingredients (nutraceuticals, dyes, etc.) and agrochemicals (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) using organic polymers as carriers. We welcome original papers and review articles addressing this topic for platforms from macro- to micro/nano-scales.

Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Antonio Picos Corrales
Prof. Dr. Angel Licea-Claveríe
Prof. Dr. Grégorio Crini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.