Investigation of Dynamic Release of Antibiotic Drug Gentamicin Sulphate from Cotton Cellulose/Polyacrylic Acid Composite Fibers

Abstract

In this work, cotton cellulose/polyacrylic (CC/PAAc) composite fibers are produced by soaking plain cotton cellulose (CC) fibers in a reaction mixture containing monomer acrylic acid, crosslinker N,N’–methylene-bis acrylamide (MB) and initiator potassium persulphate (KPS), followed by microwave induced in-situ formation of polyacrylic acid within cotton fibers. The fibers are characterized by TGA, FTIR and SEM analysis. The mechanical strength of CC/PAAc fibers was comparable to that of CC fibers, indicating marginal loss in mechanical strength. The antibacterial drug Gentamicin Sulphate (GS) was added to the reaction mixture before soaking the CC fibers in the reaction solution. This yielded GS loaded CC/PAAc fibers. The release of drug GS was investigated as a function of the amount of crosslinker in the soaking solution. It was found that the quantity of crosslinker MB in the soaking solution influenced the release mechanism. Fiber samples with relatively lower and higher amount of crosslinker followed Second order model and the Higuchi diffusion model, respectively. The CC fibers showed lower release as compared to the CC/PAAc fibers. Finally, the biocidal action of fibers was tested using a zone of inhibition method using E. Coli as model bacteria. The fibers demonstrated biocidal action by exhibiting zones of inhibition of diameter 1.3 and 2.2 cm, respectively for fibers prepared by soaking in the reaction solutions containing 0.2 and 0.4 percent (w/v) drug. Finally, the killing kinetics was investigated to show time dependent bacterial killings for the fiber samples GSLCC/PAAc (0.2) and GSLCC/PAAc (1.2).