Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Introduction: Interpenetrating polymer networks can be created in hydrogels, films, beads, microspheres, nanoparticles, tablets, and many more material forms. IPNs have a special place as drug carriers because their internal structure allows putting drug molecules between the networks without changing the drug’s features. Therefore, IPNs are highly used in the area of cancer treatment, controlled drug delivery, sustained drug release, stomach specific drug delivery, stimuli dependent release, and wound healing. In this project, we report on the effects of the same interpenetrating polymer network in two different solvents and characterize the changes in the hydrogel structure.
Materials and
Methods: Starch components amylopectin (AMY) and amylose (SS) will be used to create single network and IPN hydrogels. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and water will be used as solvents during the formation of these networks. Microwave assisted synthesis (MAS) method will be conducted to obtain hydrogels. The same IPN hydrogel structure will be characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), rheology, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to compare the IPN structures in the hydrogels in the two different solvent systems.
Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: The importance of determining the changes in the polymer structure in two different solvents is imperative to the types of drugs that can be loaded into the material for drug delivery applications. Many diseases, including cancer, are best treated with a cocktail of active therapeutic ingredients, and knowing how the delivery system behaves in the solvents required for incorporation of these different therapies optimizes how the polymer network can best be used in the clinic. There are differences in the formation of the polymer networks in water versus DMSO. Changes in polymer entanglements, strengths of networks, and changes in IPN structure upon aging are evident.
