Optimized polylactic acid/polyethylene glycol (PLA/PEG) electrospun fibrous scaffold for drug delivery: effect of graphene oxide on the cefixime release mechanism

Abstract

In the recent decade, there has been a growing interest in using electrospun polymeric scaffolds for sustained release of drugs. In this work, fibrous scaffolds of polylactic acid/polyethylene glycol (PLA/PEG) were prepared and characterized through scanning electron microscopy, for subsequent utilization as the drug delivery system for cefixime (CF). In this regard, the response surface experimental design (RSM) was successfully used for finding optimized electrospinning condition such as total solution concentration (), PEG content (), and applied voltage (V) on the morphology of electrospun PLA/PEG fibrous mats. While increasing the applied voltage and reducing both solution concentration and %PEG resulted in thinner fibers, Ctot was the influential factor on the fiber defects and continuity. Finally, PLA/PEG/CF fine fibers were produced under optimized electrospinning conditions and the controlled drug release profile was obtained in the presence of graphene oxide (GO). GO-CF intermolecular interactions, revealed by attenuated total reflection–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) analysis, authorized the drug release mechanism and resulted in near-Fickian diffusion of cefixime from the PLA/PEG/CF/GO fibrous mats.