Fabrication of nonionic surfactant modified montmorillonite for alginate/organo-montmorillonite composite fibers based hydrophobic pharmaceutical formulations

In view of the excellent interfacial activity and biocompatibility of dodecyl polyglucoside (C12-APG), natural sodium montmorillonite (Na-Mt) was organically modified by C12-APG via wet ball milling approach to change its strong polarity and enhance its affinity to hydrophobic anti-inflammatory and antibacterial drugs. Furthermore, the resultant organo-montmorillonite (OMt) was dispersed in sodium alginate (SA) matrix to fabricate alginate/OMt composite fibers (Alg/OMt CFs) through wet spinning technique to achieve their good mechanical properties, enhanced drug encapsulation and durable drug release performance. The characterization results of OMt showed that the organic modification mechanism of C12-APG on Na-Mt was considered to be physical intercalation, that was, with the assistance of mechanical forces, C12-APG was physically inserted into the interlayer of Na-Mt, which not only enlarged the d-spacing and improved the thermal stability of C12-APG in the interlayer, but also effectively changed the strong polarity of Na-Mt and enhanced its affinity to hydrophobic triclosan, thereby improving its adsorption capacity to triclosan from 34.965 mg/g to 45.249 mg/g. Moreover, the fabricated Alg/OMt CFs exhibited connected pore structure and regular morphology, and their encapsulation efficiency (EE) and drug loading capacity (DLC) were as high as 92 ± 3.1 % and 4.4 ± 0.18 %, presenting good affinity of OMt to triclosan. Additionally, Alg/OMt CFs could release triclosan continuously for 87 h, displaying good sustained release performance. Finally, the results of cytotoxicity test indicated that Alg/OMt CFs had exceptional cytocompatibility. Given their interconnected pore structure, uniform morphology, high drug loading capacity, favorable sustained release characteristics, and exceptional cytocompatibility, Alg/OMt CFs could serve as a hydrophobic anti-inflammatory and antibacterial pharmaceutical formulation in the domain of functional wound dressings.