K. Varaprasad

Fabrication of porous chitosan films impregnated with silver nanoparticles: A facile approach for superior antibacterial application

The present investigation involves the synthesis of porous chitosan-silver nanocomposite films in view of their increasing areas of application in wound dressing, antibacterial application, and water purification. The entire process consists of three-steps including silver ion-poly(ethylene glycol) matrix preparation, addition of chitosan matrix, and removal of poly(ethylene glycol) from the film matrix. Uniform porous and brown colour chitosan films impregnated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were successfully fabricated by this facile approach. Both, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and chitosan (CS) played vital roles in the reduction of metal ions into nanoparticles (NPs) as well as provided good stability to the formed nanoparticles. The developed porous chitosan-silver nanocomposite (PCSSNC) films were characterized by UV-vis and FTIR spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis for the confirmation of nanoparticles formation. The morphology of silver nanoparticles in nanocomposite films was tested by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The embedded AgNPs were clearly observed throughout the film in SEM and the extracted AgNPs from the porous chitosan-silver nanocomposite showed approximately 12nm in TEM. Improved mechanical properties were observed for porous chitosan-silver nanocomposite than for chitosan blend (CSB) and chitosan-silver nanocomposite (CSSNC) films. Further, the examined antibacterial activity results of these films revealed that porous chitosan-silver nanocomposite films exhibited superior inhibition.

Controlling of silver nanoparticles structure by hydrogel networks

Silver nanoparticles are the most widely used antibacterial agents with a number of advantages. The higher degree of biocompatibility and long-term antibacterial activity can be achieved with hydrogel-silver nanoparticles. In this work, a simple and facile synthetic strategy is developed to control the size and shape of the silver nanoparticles within the hydrogel networks. The variation in cross-link density of the polymer network has been found not only to control the size of the nanoparticles between 1 and 10nm, but it also regulates shape of the nanostructures such as nanorods, nanocubes, etc. This approach takes the advantage of the existing free-space between the networks of hydrogels that not only acts as a template for nucleation of particles but also provides long term stability. Further, nanoparticles can be recovered at any time from the hydrogel networks. These hybrid nanocomposites release nanoparticles with time which can eventually promote for antibacterial application. It can be inferred from the study that fine tuning of the hydrogel synthetic parameters will enhance the possibilities of desired nano-product tailor made for particular applications.

Synthesis and Characterizations of Macroporous Poly(acrylamide-2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) Hydrogels for In Vitro Drug Release of Ranitidine Hydrochloride

Macroporous hydrogels were prepared with acrylamide (AM) and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) as well as with anhydrous dextrose (AD) as porogen by crosslinking with N,N1-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA). The chemical structure of hydrogels is characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Morphological studies done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the macroporous nature of the hydrogels. Swelling studies of hydrogels were done in distilled water, in aqueous NaCl solution and in different pH solutions. In addition, drug release studies of selected macroporous hydrogels (DAMPS1, DAMPS4, DAMPSM1 and DAMPSM3) are also investigated.

Development and Characterization of Curcumin Loaded Silver Nanoparticle Hydrogels for Antibacterial and Drug Delivery Applications

The present work involves the development of curcumin loaded silver hydrogel nanocomposites based on acrylamide and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propanesulfonic acid, as a template by redox co-polymerization in the presence of hydrophilic crosslinker N,N1-methylenebisacrylamide. Silver nitrate was taken as the metal precursor and sodium borohydride as a reducing agent. The formation of silver nanoparticles was monitored using UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy. The developed hydrogel silver nanocomposites (HSNC) were characterized by FTIR, UV–Vis, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The curcumin loading and release characteristics were performed for different hydrogel systems. The developed HSNCs were evaluated for preliminary antibacterial applications.

Poly(acrylamide-chitosan) Hydrogels: Interaction with Surfactants

Semi-interpenetrating hydrogels were prepared from hydrophilic acrylamide and cationic natural biopolymer chitosan, N,N1-methylenebisacrylamide and water-soluble redox initiating system (ammonium persulfate/N,N,N1,N1-tetramethylethylenediamine). The interaction of these hydrogels with different surfactants such as sodiumdodecylsulphate (SDS, anionic), N-cetyl N,N,N-trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTA, cationic) and Tween20 (T20 non-ionic) was studied. The chemical structure of the hydrogels treated with surfactant was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and the morphology of hydrogels was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal properties of surfactant-treated hydrogels were evaluated by TGA analysis.

Preparation and characterization of cellulose/curcumin composite films

Water-insoluble curcumin was found to be well dissolved in an ionic liquid 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AmimCl), which is also an effective solvent for cellulose. Using AmimCl as the solvent, cellulose/curcumin composite films with various curcumin contents ranging from 0 to 5 wt% were prepared by solution-mixing and casting. The obtained films containing curcumin were highly transparent with a bright yellow color. These composite films possessed good mechanical properties and thermal stability, both of which are comparable to the pure cellulose films. The SEM observation of the fracture surface of the cellulose/curcumin composite films indicated the uniform distribution of curcumin in the matrix. The antibacterial activity of the composite films was examined by a zone method against E. coli. The results showed that the cellulose/curcumin composite films exhibited obvious antibacterial activity, and the inhibition zone diameter against the bacterium was proportional to the curcumin content in the composite films. Hence, these cellulose/curcumin composite films prepared entirely from natural resources can be considered as novel kinds of functional films and could find applications in food packaging and medical fields.

Development of Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose-based Poly(acrylamide-co-2acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid) Hydrogels for In Vitro Drug Release Studies of Ranitidine Hydrochloride an Anti-ulcer Drug

The formation of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (SCMC) based semi-interpenetrating networks (semi-IPN) with poly(acylamide-co-2-acrylamido-2-methy-l-propanesulfonic-acid) hydrogels. The hydrogels were prepared by free-radical polymerization using redox initiator. The characterizations of hydrogels were done by swelling experiments, FTIR spectroscopy and DSC analysis. Morphology of the samples were examined by SEM. Experimental results indicate that the semi-IPN hydrogel containing 0.10 g of SCMC and 5.829 mM of AMPS, shows the highest swelling capacity (64.83 g/g). The swelling behavior of the semi-IPN hydrogel (AS5) was studied in different pH solutions. The ranitidine hydrochloride drug loading and release of the semi-IPN hydrogels were studied by using a UV spectrophotometer.

Synthesis of Surfactant-Modified Poly (Acrylamide-co-Potassium Acrylate) Hydrogels and Its in vitro Release Studies

In present investigation, a series of hydrogels, composed with Surfactant and poly(Acrylamide-co-Potassium acrylate), using Ammonium per sulfate(APS)/N,N,N 1 , N 1 -tetram ethylethylene diamine (TMEDA) initiating system and N,N 1-methylenebisacrlyamide (MBA) as crosslinker. The prepared hydrogel was characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The controlled release characteristics of the matrices for Triprolidene hydrochloride (TH) were investigated in pH 7.4 media. Drug was released in a controlled manner up to 1400 min.

Surfactant-Modified Poly(acrylamide-co-acrylamido propane sulphonic acid) Hydrogels

Recent advances in drug delivery have been directed towards the design of a number of intelligent systems for the treatment of various diseases. In this regard, we developed novel surfactant-modified hydrogels which are synthesized from acrylamide (AM) and acrylamido propane sulphonic acid (AMPS), in the presence of a surfactant (Latemul PD-104) using ammonium persulfate/N,N,N′,N′–tetramethylethylene diamine (APS)/(TMEDA) as an initiating system and N,N′-methylenebisacrlyamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. The hydrogel formation was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The variation in the hydrogel networks formation employing different levels of synthetic parameters was verified by swelling studies. Influences of salt, biological fluids, and buffer solutions on the developed systems were also investigated. It was found that, compared to PAM hydrogel, all the surfactant-modified hydrogels were responsive towards salt concentration and pH. A robust drug release behavior was observed from surfactant-modified hydrogel systems.

A Novel Biodegradable Green Poly(l-Aspartic Acid-Citric Acid) Copolymer for Antimicrobial Applications

Poly (l-aspartic acid-citric acid) green copolymers were developed using thermal polymerization of aspartic acid (ASP) and citric acid (CA) followed by direct bulk melt condensation technique. Antibacterial properties of copolymer of aspartic acid based were investigated as a function of citric acid content. This study is focused on the microorganism inhibition performance of aspartic acid based copolymers. Results showed that inhibition properties increase with increasing citric acid content. Characterization of obtained copolymers was carried out with the help of infrared absorption spectra (FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). The antibacterial activity of copolymers against bacteria like E-coli, Bacillus and pseudomonas was investigated. The copolymers showed excellent antimicrobial activities against three types of microorganisms. Overall studies indicated that the above copolymers possess a broad wound dressing activity against above three types of bacteria and may be useful as antibacterial agents.