Aspirin adsorption on multiwalled carbon nanotubes and its release characteristics in simulated body fluid

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been proposed and actively explored as innovative carriers for drug delivery applications. The functionalization of carbon nanotubes can improve substantially their dispersability and biocompatibility profile, thus offering the potential exploitation of carbon nanotubes in drug administration. In this study, the multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were functionalized using concentrated nitric acid (68%) and supfuric acid (98%) in the ration 3:1 volume per volume by sonication techniques and were characterized using various characterization instruments. The generation of carboxylic groups was proven by FT-IR spectroscopy. In addition, the loading of aspirin (ASA) drug onto functionalized MWCNTs was done by sonication technique at different concentration of ASA drug solutions and at different sonication time. The presence of ASA attached onto functionalized MWCNTs was determined by FT-IR spectroscopy. The results from UV-Vis Spectrophtometer gave the percentage of ASA loading onto functionalized MWCNTs with the amount of 77.64% (77.64 mg) at 30 000 ppm for 5 hours sonication. From the release study of ASA in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF) at 37ºC (human body temperature) and 39ºC (fever temperature), the results show a fast release of ASA from ASA-f-MWCNTs composite for the first 5 hours compared to the commercialized aspirin tablets and followed by a controlled release at the following hours. It reveals that MWCNTs have the ability to improve the pharmacokinetics of ASA in the biomedical applications, thus it can be used to improve the drug delivery system.