| Keywords [eng] |
Electrically conductive polymers (ECPs), drug delivery system, hydrogel, polyaniline (PANI), PEDOT—Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), polyvinyl alcohol, Calcium alginate, Stimulus responsive Drug delivery system. |
| Abstract [eng] |
This research is centered around the development and optimization of alginate and polyvinyl alcohol-based hydrogels and turning them into stimuli-responsive conductive hydrogels by incorporating polyaniline and PEDOT:PSS for controlled drug delivery applications. The hydrogel was ionically crosslinked with calcium divalent ions from calcium chloride, and methylene blue was loaded as a drug model. Structural and physicochemical characterization was done using FTIR, conductivity, and morphological evaluation. Drug release was evaluated under passive, electrically stimulated, and pH-responsive conditions. The incorporation of conductive polymer polyaniline (~0.027M) to polyaniline (~0.082M) increased the conductivity from ~206 μS/m to ~12074 μS/m, and the addition of PEDOT:PSS synthesized from ~0.007 M EDOT-equivalent concentration relative to the total hydrogel precursor volume increased the conductivity further by 1.5 times, resulting in ~18750 μS/m. The hydrogel system with both conductive polymers showed 104.8%, percentage swelling in comparison to the control system with only alginate and PVA, which was 329.5%. Enhanced release, 49.80% after 3 hours, was observed under acidic (pH 5) conditions, and 9.64% after 1 hour under electrical stimulus-dependent release, indicating a stimulus-responsive DDS. Release kinetics modeling suggested that the release was diffusion based under passive conditions. Diffusion and hydrogel network swelling contributed under pH conditions and under electrical stimulus conditions. The resulting hydrogel shows future potential for smart drug delivery applications and stimulus-responsive therapeutic systems. |
