Tensile and wettability properties of electrospun polycaprolactone coated with pectin/polyaniline composite for drug delivery application

Abstract

Purpose

Over the years, electrical stimulation in drug delivery system holds particular interest in producing spatially and temporally controlled release mechanism. These systems helped in localized doses drugs to be administrated and response efficiently at target site to achieve excellent healing effect in control microenvironment. Extensive research is needed in order to develop versatile electroactive biomaterials in the field of therapeutics applications. This paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

This work reports the development of polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospun coated with pectin/polyaniline (PANi) composite, which has been characterized and whose drug delivery application is ascertained. The composite has been characterized on its mechanical conductivity and wettability properties to evaluate best formulation. The analysis on morphological properties using scanning electron microscope (SEM) confirmed the formation of the dual-layer electro-responsive composite.

Findings

Among different formulations studied, the pectin/PANi composition (12 percent/3 percent) was found to be an optimized composition with ultimate tensile strength of 55.48±0.65 MPa and modulus strength of 63.30±0.43 MPa with 2.41×10^–3 Scm⁻¹ electrical percolation. The hydrophobic PCL electrospun reduced as coating material was introduced on top with optimum of 85.3 percent degree of swelling and water contact angle at 39.17±0.67°. SEM micrograph revealed strong interaction between dual-layer structures with interconnected porous of uniform fibers.

Originality/value

Overall, these data present a multiangle initial characterization of this novel dual-layer electro-responsive composite for applications in drug delivery. However, additional analysis should be performed in order to provide a clear verification as drug delivery scaffold.

Citation

Hamzah, M.S.A., Austad, A., Razak, S.I.A. and Nayan, N.H.M. (2019), "Tensile and wettability properties of electrospun polycaprolactone coated with pectin/polyaniline composite for drug delivery application", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 10 No. 5, pp. 704-713. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSI-04-2019-0033