Improvement in bioavailability of curcumin within the castor‐oil based polyurethane nanocomposite through its conjugation on the surface of graphene oxide nanosheets

Abstract

AbstractRecently biocompatible polyurethane (PU) films, made from renewable bioactive compounds have been introduced as a feasible option to accelerate wound healing process. In this work, graphene oxide (GO) nanostructures were applied as a practical nanocarrier system to enhance the bioavailability of curcumin within castor‐oil based PU elastomer nanocomposites. Successfully modification of GO nanosheets with curcumin (C‐GO) were confirmed by FT‐IR, XRD, TGA, Raman spectroscopy, and FE‐SEM microscopy techniques. FE‐SEM images demonstrated a good dispersion quality of C‐GO nanosheets in the PU matrix, demonstrating the enhanced bioavailability of curcumin. Based on XRD diffractograms, PU/C‐GO nanocomposite showed a lower crystallinity and microphase‐separation degree compared to blank PU sample. This finding is probably originated from the amphiphilic properties of C‐GO which provides possibility of good interactions with hard and soft domains in PU backbone. Moreover, compared to PU/GO nanocomposite, the surface modification of GO with curcumin increased the tensile strength and Young's modulus of PU/C‐GO nanocomposite to 4.92 and 44.49 MPa, respectively. The in vitro MTT assay revealed a significant viability for L929 fibroblast cells in exposure with PU/C‐GO film. Besides, the results of in vivo wound healing evaluation on the mouse model indicated that the PU/C‐GO sample could accelerate the healing rate by promoting the proliferation and re‐epithelialization of fibroblast cells in the wound site. Thus, it is suggested that the PU/C‐GO nanocomposite film may has a potential and promising application as a wound dressing.