Ketoprofen/ethyl Cellulose Nanofibers Fabricated Using an Epoxy-coated Spinneret

Xiao-Yan Li, Deng-Guang Yu, Cai-Tao Fu, Rui Wang, Xia Wang

School of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.

DOI: 10.4236/mnsms.2013.34B002                

Abstract

The present study investigates the preparation of sustained release drug-loaded nanofibers using a novel epoxy-coated spinneret. With ethyl cellulose (EC) and ketoprofen (KET) as the filament-forming matrix and the active pharmaceutical ingredient, Drug-loaded composite nanofibers are generated smoothly and continuously with few user interventions. Field-emission scanning electron microscopic observations demonstrated that the composite nanofibers prepared using the epoxy-coated spinneret have better quality than those from a traditional stainless steel spinneret in terms of diameter and its distribution. Both of the composite nanofibers are in essential a molecular solid dispersion of EC and KET based on the hydrogen bonding between them, as verified by XRD and ATR-FTIR results. In vitro dissolution tests show that the nanofibers resulted from the new spinneret provide a finer sustained KET release profile than their counter-parts. Epoxy-coated spinneret is a useful tool to facilitate the electrospinning process through the prevention of clogging for generating high quality nanofibers.

Keywords

Electrospinning; Nanofibers; Sustained Drug Release; Ethyl Cellulose

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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