KCS

We have successfully prepared homogeneous hybrid materials between biocompatible hydrogels and 2-dimensional layered metal hydroxide (LMH) nanoparticles through electrophoretic route; hydrogels are frequently utilized as topical drug delivery and LMHs are known as potential reservoir for controlled drug release. Hydrogels, either agarose or gelatin (1 ~ 2 % in Tris-Cl buffer of pH 7.4) was located in the center of electrophoresis chamber separating metal precursor solution at anode and base solution at cathode, respectively. Various composition of metal precursors solutions, such as Ni²⁺/Al³⁺, Ni²⁺/Ga³⁺, Zn²⁺/Al³⁺, and Zn²⁺ were tested in preparing nanohybrids between hydrogel and Ni₂Al(OH)₆CO₃)_0.5, Ni₂Ga(OH)₆(CO₃)_0.5, Zn₂Al(OH)₆(CO₃)_0.5, Zn₅(OH)₆(CO₃)_0.5 nanoparticles. According to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and X-ray absorption spectrum (XAS), it was exhibited that each hybrid material has nanoscipic LMH particles in it and their crystal structures are almost similar to that of conventionally prepared ones. The infrared spectra of hybrid materials showed characteristic absorption peaks attributed to the stretching modes of hydrogels or LMHs, showing that the physicochemical properties of each substances are not significantly affected through electrophoretic synthesis. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of hybrid materials showed homogeneously dispersed nanoparticles in hydrogel matrix, while the simple mixture of conventionally prepared nanoparticles and hydrogel showed uneven distribution. In order to investigate the potential of the prepared hybrids as drug delivery systems, we loaded polyphenol molecules into the hybrid materials through soaking route and evaluated the time-dependent release patterns of polyphenol. As a result, the homogeneous hybrids showed more controlled drug release behaviors compared to each substance of hydrogel matrix and nanoparticle itself.