Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)/NAY zeolite hybrid membranes as a drug release platform applied to ibuprofen release

Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)/NaY zeolite composite membranes were prepared by solvent casting and evaluated as a suitable drug release platform through the evaluation of loading and release of ibuprofen. The membranes were characterized at the morphological, structural and mechanical levels. The 1H-NMR spectra indicate that only the membranes with 16 and 32 % of NaY were useful for IBU encapsulation and the drug release was followed by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The release profile is independent of the zeolite content and can be described by the Korsmeyer-Peppas model. The membrane with 32 % zeolite content releases more than double IBU amount when compared with the membrane with 16 % showing that zeolite content allows tailoring membrane drug release content for specific applications. The drug release platform developed in this work is suitable for other drugs and applications.

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2014 and PEST C/QUI/UIO686/2013 projects. A.C.L. thank the support of the FCT grants 12 SFRH/BD/62507/2009. The authors also thank funding from Matepro –Optimizing Materials and Processes”, ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000037”, co-funded by the “Programa Operacional Regional do Norte” (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the “Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional” (QREN), through the “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional” (FEDER). The authors acknowledge the n-STeP Project, reference NORTE-07-0124-FEDER 000039, supported by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2) and to the NMR Portuguese network (PTNMR, Bruker Avance III 400-Univ. Minho).