Temperature‐Responsive Low Molecular Weight Ionic Liquid Based Gelator: An Approach to Fabricate an Anti‐Cancer Drug‐Loaded Hybrid Ionogel

Abstract

AbstractConceptualising gelators with stimuli responsiveness is advantageous to design smart materials for emerging technologies. These gelators, if are surface active and made up of active pharmaceutical ingredients, can (i) exhibit an interesting pharmaceutical profile, (ii) be useful in drug formulations and (iii) exert direct effects on cell membranes. Herein, cetylpyridinium salicylate (CetPySal) that offers higher surface activity than its precursor surfactant, cetpylpyridinium chloride (CPCl), was synthesised. CetPySal forms a temperature‐responsive ionogel at a critical gelation concentration that changes its physical appearance with temperature, i. e. opaque to transparent, owing to its structural arrangement within its supramolecular framework, that are characterized through spectrometric, calorimetric, scattering and microscopic techniques. The viscoelastic nature of the ionogels was studied through dynamic rheological measurements and the interactions that governs the phase transition were studied through FTIR spectroscopy. The hybrid pharmaceutical ionogels was successfully constructed through encapsulation of the chemotherapeutic drug imatinib mesylate within the ionogel matrix. The sustained release of the drug was investigated from this hybrid ionogel matrix. These results suggest that this new thermo‐responsive ionogel may be used to improve sustained release of drugs and open up new avenues as low‐cost gelators for biomedical applications.