Fabrication and characterization of alginate microspheres

Abstract

Abstract Sodium alginate is a natural hydrophilic polysaccharide and has been widely studied as drug delivery system because of its biocompatible properties. There are various methods for alginate microspheres preparation such as extrusion methods, spray-drying methods, etc. Among these techniques, the particle sizes of bead are in the millimeter range. The particle size is crucial for the drug delivery application, as particle size gets smaller, the drug is closer to the surface of the particle, which fastens the drug release. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to fabricate alginate microspheres (AMs) via the emulsification/gelation method and to tailor its particle size and size distribution. Moreover, it is simple in experimental setup. The AMs were synthesized by water in oil (w/o) emulsion method using sodium alginate, liquid paraffin, and calcium chloride as a cross-linking agent. The morphology and particle size of AMs were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The AMs were spherical in shape and the average particle sizes were less than 65.88 µm. The results showed that particle size of the microspheres increased with increased alginate concentration. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis shows that there was no additional peak in the transmittance spectrum of AMs. In conclusion, AMs were successfully prepared by an emulsification/gelation method by controlling the alginate concentration. The synthesized AMs showed a remarkable ability to be used for drug delivery system.