Abstract

The present study investigates the preparation of sustained release drug-loaded nanofibers using a novel epoxy-coated spinneret. With ethyl cellulose (EC) and ketoprofen (KET) as the filament-forming matrix and the active pharmaceutical ingredient, Drug-loaded composite nanofibers are generated smoothly and continuously with few user interventions. Field-emission scanning electron microscopic observations demonstrated that the composite nanofibers prepared using the epoxy-coated spinneret have better quality than those from a traditional stainless steel spinneret in terms of diameter and its distribution. Both of the composite nanofibers are in essential a molecular solid dispersion of EC and KET based on the hydrogen bonding between them, as verified by XRD and ATR-FTIR results. In vitro dissolution tests show that the nanofibers resulted from the new spinneret provide a finer sustained KET release profile than their counter-parts. Epoxy-coated spinneret is a useful tool to facilitate the electrospinning process through the prevention of clogging for generating high quality nanofibers.

Highlights

  • Electrospinning has attracted increased attentions as a “top-down” nanotechnology for nanofiber production owing to its simplicity and cost effectiveness [1,2]

  • Both of the composite nanofibers are in essential a molecular solid dispersion of ethyl cellulose (EC) and KET based on the hydrogen bonding between them, as verified by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and ATR-FTIR results

  • The nanofibers F2 prepared through the epoxy resin (EP)-coated spinneret had and average diameters of 690 nm ± 150 nm (Figure 4(b)). These results demonstrated that EP-coated spinneret could improve the generated nanofibers’ quality with smaller diameter and narrower diameter’s distribution, and that the electrical energy might exert more efficacious drawing on the spinning solutions when the EP-coated spinneret is exploited

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Summary

Introduction

Electrospinning has attracted increased attentions as a “top-down” nanotechnology for nanofiber production owing to its simplicity and cost effectiveness [1,2]. One of the common problems associated with the preparation of drug-loaded nanofibers is the frequent clogging of the spinneret during the electrospinning process, and by which often the quality of resulted nanofibers are deteriorated, especially when a high-volatility solvent is used to prepare a polymer solution [5,6]. The organic solvents as sheath fluids can stabilize the electrospinning process and assists the generation of high quality nanofibers (in terms of their size distribution, uniformity and surface morphology) [7,8,9]. EC is an inert, hydrophobic polymer and is essentially tasteless, odourless, colorless, non-caloric, and physiologically inert It has long been used as solventbased tablet and pellet coating, tablet binder, to prepare microcapsules and microspheres, and both as film- and matrix- forming material for sustained-release dosage forms [13]. EC was selected as the drug carrier and polymer matrix to generate composite fibers and microparticles to achieve sustained-release profiles [13,14]

Materials
Electrospinning
Morphology The morphology of the fiber mats was assessed using an
Results and Discussion
Conclusions

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