Synthesis of cellulose acetate nanofibers and its application in the release of some drugs

Objective(s): The purpose of this study was to compare novel sandwichstructured nanofibrous membranes, and coaxial and usual methods, to provide sustainedrelease delivery of morphine for drug delivery. In this work, synthesis ofnanofibrous cellulose acetate (NFC) was carried out by electrospinning. Methods: A weighed amount of cellulose acetate (CA) powder was dissolved in 3:1 v/v acetone/dimethylformamide (DMF) to obtain a CA solution at a concentration of 8 to16% w/v. Acetaminophen or morphineloaded CA solutions were prepared by dissolving CA powder and Acetaminophen (A) or morphine in the weight ratio of 5:1, in an acetone/DMF mixture. Under optimum condition, they were electrospun into sandwich structured membranes with the coaxial method and cellulose acetate as the surface layer and cellulose acetate/drugs as the core. Results: Characterization of the radius of fiber is shown as 52.9 ± 0.1nm with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The full range drug release profiles of nanofibers are shown as 80.7% of the contained drug in 8h. The drug release from nanofiber was controlled through a typical Fickian diffusion mechanism from the cellulose acetate matrix by a release exponent value of 0.24 for conventional nanofiber, 0.35 for coaxial nanofiber and 0.40 (less than 0.45) for sandwich nanofibers. Conclusions: All the cellulose acetate nanofibers showed that they could release large amounts of drugs in vitro for more than one day. However, among these three methods, the best one is a sandwich method because its release is slower than that of the other methods.