Figure 2.

Schematic representation of different lipid-based nanocarriers. Nanoemulsions (a) and microemulsions (b) both present a liquid oily core but differ in their thermodynamic stability, the former being subject to typical emulsion instabilities, while the latter are thermodynamically stable. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) (c) present a rigid lipid matrix with poor drug-loading capability, which is improved by partial substitution with an oil, leading to the so-called nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) (d).