Patent ID: 7465410

Claim:
A solvent-activated reactor that generates a target product when placed in contact with a main solvent, the reactor comprising: a core that contains an intermixed first reactant and second reactant that are capable of at least partially dissolving in a main solvent to form liquid phase reactants that generate the target product by a chemical reaction upon being contacted by the main solvent; and a solvent-permeable reactor wall that uniformly encapsulates a core of reactants defining a reactor space that contains the core, wherein the solvent-permeable reactor wall in contact with the main solvent is a membrane which allows the main solvent into the reactor space, restricts the diffusion of the reactants out of the reactor space, wherein the target product diffuses out of the reactor space at a restricted rate through the reactor wall; and wherein the solvent-permeable reactor wall that uniformly encapsulates a core of reactants comprises: a coating material distributed over the surface of the core in the form of an aerosol or spray and dried; and wherein the coating material is selected from at least one of a; silicate, cellulose, chitin, chitosan, polymaleic acid, polyacrylic acid, polyacrylamide, and polyvinyl alcohol.