Microencapsulation has applications in several industries: 1) In pharmaceuticals, it allows for controlled drug delivery in areas like gene therapy, vaccines, and insulin delivery. 2) In catalysis, microencapsulation enables safe handling and reuse of toxic transition metals. 3) In energy generation, hollow plastic microspheres loaded with deuterium use laser compression to achieve nuclear fusion and release energy.

1. Pharmaceutics:
Microencapsulation technique is used in
controlled/sustained drug delivery. This drug
delivery system may be used in gene therapy,
vaccines for treating AIDS, tumors, cancer and
diabetes. Protein such as insulin, growth hormone
and erythropoietin are delivered in a corrective
gene sequence in the form of plasmid DNA123.
Catalysis:
Transition metal based catalytic processes are
important in pharmaceutical industries. However
many of these metals are toxic, making the process
hazardous. Microencapsulation enables safe
handling, easy recovery, reuse and disposal at
cheap cost. Polyurea microcapsules are insoluble in
aqueous and organic solvents, and resistant
towards degeneration, therefore they're used for

2. the encapsulation of different catalysts such as
palladium, acetate and osmium tetroxide.
Energy Generation:
Hollow plastic microspheres loaded with gaseous
deuterium are used to obtain electrical energy from
nuclear fusion. The capsules are multilayered.
1-Inner layer: Polystyrene shell compressing
deuterium. 3mm thick.
2-Middle layer: Polyvnyl alcohol that prevents the
diffusion of deuterium out of the capsule. 3mm
thick
3-Outer layer: Highly crosslinked polymer made
from 2-butene. 50mm thick.
In the fusion experiments, energy from high
powered laser beams is absorbed by the outer shell.
The outer shell burns off, and the reaction is
accelerated to the rest of the shell inward,

3. compressing and heating the deuterium inside. This
results in high densities and temperature in the
center of the capsule leading to the fusion of
deuterium to give tritium, helium and other
particles, releasing an enormous amount of energy.
Defence:
Self-healing polymers is one of the most important
defence applications of microencapsulation. They
provide long-lived structural materials and store the
healing agent during quiescent states and also
provide the mechanical trigger for the self-healing
process when damage occurs in the host material.
To provide long shelf life the capsules must be
impervious to leakage and diffusion of the
encapsulated healing agent for considerable time.
The addition of these microcapsules to an epoxy
matrix also provides a unique toughening
mechanism for the composite system. Such
microcapsules have tremendous application in

4. aerospace area for making self-repairable
spacecrafts. Such self-healing spacecrafts open up
the possibility of longer duration missions by
increasing the lifetime of a spacecraft.
Microencapsulation is also used for designing
specialized fabrics for military personnel, for their
enhanced chemical protection against chemical
warfare.
Agriculture:
Insect pheromones may serve as an alternative to
conventional hard pesticides, such as sexattractant
pheromones that reduce populations by disrupting
the insect's mating process by hiding the
pheromone plume released by its female
mate.Polymer microcapsules, polyurea, gelatin and
gum arabic are used as delivery vehicles by spraying
the capsule dispersion. They also protect the
pheromone from oxidation and light during storage
and release.

5. Food Industry:
Microencapsulation enables food companies to
incorporate minerals, vitamins, flavours and
essential oils. It can also simplify the food
manufacturing process by converting liquids into
solid powder which decreases the cost and
equipment power. It also helps fragile and sensitive
materials by stabilizing their shelf life.