Abstract
Polymers are key building blocks in the development of smart materials for biomedical applications, and many polymers offer unique properties for specific applications. A wide range of materials is available through the use of polymer compounds. These compounds can incorporate performance-enhancing fillers, which provide properties not reachable with ordinary neat polymers (e.g., bending stiffness, tensile strength, elongation, torque, biological activity such as antimicrobial properties, cell differentiation). In this work, the preparation of functional biocomposites containing organic modified zirconium phosphate (ZrP) as drug carrier is presented. The composites were prepared by melt compounding, which offers significant promise since it allows an easy customization of the plastic compounds that well suit biomedical applications (devices, long-term implantable polymers, bioresorbable polymers). The obtained polymer composites based on ZrP intercalated with gentamicin (GMT) and poly(ethylene oxide terephthalate)/poly(butylene terephthalate) (PEOT/PBT) were characterized.
Highlights
Organic–inorganic hybrid materials based on lamellar solids are innovative compounds that allow the development of multifunctional fillers for polymer composites [1,2]
The zirconium phosphate (ZrP)-Gentamicin sulfate (GTM) intercalation compound was characterized by XRPD and Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) analyses
The overall weight loss of ZrP-GTM sample (b) was higher compared to the pristine ZrP material (a)
Summary
Organic–inorganic hybrid materials based on lamellar solids are innovative compounds that allow the development of multifunctional fillers for polymer composites [1,2]. Alpha-Zirconium phosphate is a lamellar solid with interesting properties to be used for the development of such hybrid materials [3]. ZrP structure is composed by stacking layers made of planes of Zr atoms bonded, on both sides, to monohydrogen phosphate groups. Each phosphate group is bonded to three Zr atoms of the plane, while each zirconium is octahedrally coordinated by six oxygens of six different monohydrogen phosphate groups. The term ‘intercalation’ refers to a reversible process where a guest molecule or ion is inserted into the interlayer region of a host lamellar matrix [10]. The electrostatic interactions [11] of the guest molecules and the lamellae of the ZrP increase its chemical and thermal stability
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