Silica aerogel has potential for drug delivery applications due to its high surface area, non-toxicity, high porosity, and open pore structure. In this research, drug-doped silica aerogel was prepared by a rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE) method that employs a contained mold held within a hydraulic hot press. The aerogel precursors first react to form a porous, wet sol-gel network, then the liquid in the pores of the wet gel is brought above its critical point and released, leaving an aerogel. In work by other groups, drugs have been loaded into previously prepared aerogel. Here, drugs were entrapped in the aerogel matrix during RSCE aerogel fabrication. The first model drug chosen was ibuprofen, which has been used previously by other researchers in the investigation of the suitability of silica aerogel as a drug delivery system. Ibuprofen has suitable thermal stability for the RSCE process, which involves high temperatures (260 °C). Ibuprofen-doped, monolithic silica aerogels were successfully fabricated via RSCE using tetramethyl orthosilicate as the silica precursor. The subsequent release of ibuprofen from the silica aerogel into 0.01M HCl was monitored by UV absorption spectroscopy. An increase in absorbance of the solution was measured over time. A long-term goal of the project is to monitor the effect of aerogel surface functional groups on release rate of the loaded drug. The properties of aerogels can be modified by inclusion of organically modified silanes in the precursor solution. By incorporating different functional groups into the aerogel matrix, the effect of physical properties of aerogel on the release of the drug can be determined.

Investigation of doped silica aerogels for drug delivery systems

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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