Synthesis and characterization of kaolinite nanotubes (KNTs) as a novel carrier for 5-fluorouracil of high encapsulation properties and controlled release

Abstract

Kaolinite nanotubes (KNTs) were synthesized successfully from raw well crystalline kaolinite and characterized using different analytical techniques. The synthetic tubes appear as multi-walled scrolls with length ranges from 50 nm to 600 nm with an average pore diameter of 12 nm and specific surface area of 105m2/g. The outer diameter range of kaolinite tubes from 10 nm to 50 nm, and the inner diameter range from about 2 to about 20 nm. The synthetic kaolinite nanotubes were used as Nano-carriers for 5-fluorouracil (5FU) with encapsulation capacity reach about 103 mg/g which was confirmed by HRTEM, FT-IR and XRD analysis for the samples after the loading process. The synthetic KNTs loaded by 5FU (KNTs/5FU) is of controlled release properties that continued to about 60 h at releasing percentage of about 74.3% and 91% using intestinal fluid and colonic fluid, respectively. The cell viability studies utilizing L929 cells line resulted in very high cell viability percentage and non-cytotoxicity induced the application of KNTs as a promising carrier for 5FU of effective anticancer properties.