Effect of Variation of Polymer Concentration on Burst and Sustained Drug release Profiles of KET-Loaded Nanofibers

The method of electrospinning was utilized to fabricate drug loaded nanofibers of varying fiber diameters and morphologies. Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and ethyl cellulose (EC) were used as model polymers. Fiber diameters and morphologies were considered at different concentrations of these polymers by means of SEM images and Image J software respectively. It was observed a reduction pattern in fiber diameters for both PVP and EC nanofibers upon reducing of polymer concentrations. Physical and chemical characteristics of polymers and their interfaces between different chemical groups in the polymer matrices were explored by XRD and FTIR. TGA was used to investigate the thermal strength of drug loaded nanofibers. It was observed that both the polymers exist in an amorphous state. These polymers have numerous functional groups by which they can form bonds with other polymers, drugs and therapeutic agents through hydrogen bonding and other chemical interactions to engineer novel polymeric drug loaded nanofibers with unique morphologies. This study brings forward the fabrication of a wider range of nanofibers by optimizing the polymer concentrations that can increase the potential applications of nanofibers.