Microencapsulations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A process involving the coating of tiny particles with a polymer or other material to create a micro-sized capsule that can encapsulate active substances
2. The technique of enclosing small amounts of a substance in a microscopic shell, often used for controlled release or protection purposes
3. A method that allows for the entrapment of minute quantities of an agent within a protective barrier for applications such as pharmaceuticals or food technology

Etymology: Micro- comes from the Greek "mīkrós", meaning "small", and it reached English as a combining form that can be attached to almost any noun. Encapsulation, for its part, is built from "capsule" plus the suffix "-ation", and the word "capsule" itself traces back to the Latin "capsula", a small box. So the whole term is a compound of "small" and "small box", with the plural form simply counting several such tiny coatings at once. The sense of the word rests on the older idea of enclosing something inside a shell. A capsule in its original sense was a small container, and to encapsulate a substance is to seal it inside one. Putting a prefix meaning "very small" in front of that gives a term for particles, often just a few micrometres across, that hold a core material wrapped in a protective coating.