Vaterite is one of the anhydrous polymorphs of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which is recognized as an important biomedical material due to its features such as high specific surface area, high solubility, high dispersion, and small specific gravity. However, the synthesis of vaterite with controllable size and morphology in the absence of any chemicals such as surfactant is still remaining a challenge. Herein, we report a facile, fast, surfactant-free and green sonochemical method to prepare vaterite by using cellulose as substrate and structure-directing agent in ethylene glycol at ambient condition. Experimental results showed that the phase of CaCO3 can be regulated by adjusting the cellulose concentration in the reaction system, and porous vaterite nanospheres (assembled from rice-shaped vaterite nanoparticles) with average diameter of 206~246 nm can be obtained. The important role of cellulose and the formation mechanism of vaterite are explored and discussed in detail. Furthermore, the as-prepared cellulose/vaterite nanocomposites can be used as anticancer drug nanocarriers, and exhibit a high ability to damage cancer cells after loading docetaxel. The weight percentage of docetaxel in the cellulose/vaterite nanocomposites drug-delivery system was estimated to be approximately 29.37% and the docetaxel-loading capacity of the nanocomposites was about 416 mg g-1 (mg drug per gram carrier). The as-prepared nanocomposites are also explored for protein adsorption using hemoglobin as model protein and showed relatively high protein adsorption ability (248 mg g-1). These results indicate that the as-prepared cellulose/vaterite nanocomposites are promising for applications in biomedical fields, such as drug delivery and protein adsorption.

Cellulose/vaterite nanocomposites: Sonochemical synthesis, and their applications in drug delivery and protein adsorption

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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