Abstract
The objective of this study is to develop a structural nanocomposite of multiple components in the form of core-sheath nanofibres using coaxial electrospinning for the fast dissolving of a poorly water-soluble drug quercetin. Under the selected conditions, core-sheath nanofibres with quercetin and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) distributed in the core and sheath part of nanofibres, respectively, were successfully generated, and the drug content in the nanofibres was able to be controlled simply through manipulating the core fluid flow rates. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images demonstrated that the nanofibres prepared from the single sheath fluid and double core/sheath fluids (with core-to-sheath flow rate ratios of 0.4 and 0.7) have linear morphology with a uniform structure and smooth surface. The TEM images clearly demonstrated the core-sheath structures of the produced nanocomposites. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results verified that quercetin and SDS were well distributed in the polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) matrix in an amorphous state, due to the favourite second-order interactions. In vitro dissolution studies showed that the core-sheath composite nanofibre mats could disintegrate rapidly to release quercetin within 1 min. The study reported here provides an example of the systematic design, preparation, characterization and application of a new type of structural nanocomposite as a fast-disintegrating drug delivery system.
Highlights
The solubility behaviour of poorly water-soluble drugs is one of the most challenging aspects of formulation development in pharmaceutics [1]
A schematic diagram of the coaxial electrospinning process is shown in Figure 1a; its inset shows a digital picture of the homemade concentric spinneret, which was prepared by inserting a small stainless steel tube (27G; the outer and inner diameters are 1.25 and 0.84, respectively) into a big stainless steel tube (18G; the outer and inner diameters are 0.42 and 0.21, respectively)
Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images demonstrated that the nanofibres prepared from the single sheath fluid and double core/sheath fluids have linear morphology with a uniform structure and smooth surface
Summary
The solubility behaviour of poorly water-soluble drugs is one of the most challenging aspects of formulation development in pharmaceutics [1]. Electrospinning is a simple and straightforward process for generating nanofibres The popularity of this system is due to its easy implementation, capability of treating a variety of materials, convenience in obtaining composites of multiple components and a wide variety of potential applications of the resultant nanofibres [8,9,10,11]. The fast drying electrospinning process is able to ‘freeze’ the drug molecules randomly in the solid polymer fibre matrix, into a state comparable to a liquid form. This is very useful to prevent phase separation, e.g., re-crystallization of either drug or matrix, during removal of the solvents [14]
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