Abstract
The supercritical CO2-based technologies have been widely used in the formation of drug and/or polymer particles for biomedical applications. In this study, nanoparticles of poly-(methyl vinyl ether-co-maleic anhydride) (PVM/MA) were successfully fabricated by a process of solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO2 (SEDS). A 23 factorial experiment was designed to investigate and identify the significance of the processing parameters (concentration, flow and solvent/nonsolvent) for the surface morphology, particle size, and particle size distribution of the products. The effect of the concentration of PVM/MA was found to be dominant in the results regarding particle size. Decreasing the initial solution concentration of PVM/MA decreased the particle size significantly. After optimization, the resulting PVM/MA nanoparticles exhibited a good spherical shape, a smooth surface, and a narrow particle size distribution. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra demonstrated that the chemical composition of PVM/MA was not altered during the SEDS process and that the SEDS process was therefore a typical physical process. The absolute value of zeta potential of the obtained PVM/MA nanoparticles was larger than 40 mV, indicating the samples’ stability in aqueous suspension. Analysis of thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) revealed that the effect of the SEDS process on the thermostability of PVM/MA was negligible. The results of gas chromatography (GC) analysis confirmed that the SEDS process could efficiently remove the organic residue.
Highlights
In the past several decades, drug-loaded microspheres created by incorporating pharmaceutical agents into biodegradable polymers have aroused increasing interest [1,2,3]
After solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO2 (SEDS) processing, the original PVM/MA powders were micronized into nanoparticles; the effect of the concentration of PVM/MA was found to be dominant in the results regarding particle size
From the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, it was found that increasing the PVM/MA concentration tended to increase the width of the particle, while increasing the flow rate tended to increase the length of the particle and create a shelled peanut-like morphology
Summary
In the past several decades, drug-loaded microspheres created by incorporating pharmaceutical agents into biodegradable polymers have aroused increasing interest [1,2,3]. This strategy can combine protecting active compounds and releasing drugs to specific tissues at a therapeutically optimal rate [4]. Is a typical one with great potential in biomedical application [10,11,12] It is a polyanhydride and can be employed as an ideal co-polymer for the fabrication of particulate dosage forms due to its bioadhesive and mucoadhesive properties [13]. Few studies have reported the application of PVM/MA in fabricating drug-loaded polymer particles
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