Electrospun TiO2 Nanofibers as a matrix to enhance the drug loading
The technique of Electrospinning has been considered as the most promising approach for the large scale production of nanofibers of varying diameter. It is quite a simple and efficient method for the nanofiber production. When a viscous fluid is charged with a high voltage, the electrostatic force draws the fluid into a liquid jet. Because of the interaction between the jet and external electrical field and charge repulsion inside the jet, the charged jet undergoes a bending instability to stretch it thinner. Solvent evaporation from the filaments results in solid fibers. It now remains important to explore and expand the scope of applications of as produced nanofibers. We present a simple procedure to load an herb onto the nanofiber. Morphology and size of as-prepared titanium fibers were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The B.E.T method was used for surface area calculation. Crystalline phase of the fibers was identified by X-ray diffraction. Here we loaded the TiO2 nanofiber matrix with the well-known antibacterial Curcumin drug. We have generated an absorption spectrum of the desorbed Curcumin from the fiber matrix. It is found that the fibers with fewer diameters are having more amount of drug adsorption.
