Iron oxide nanoparticles loaded smart hybrid hydrogel for anti-inflammatory drug delivery: Preparation and characterizations

Hydrogels are three-dimensional solid-like substances that can expand to a large extent while retaining their three-dimensional hierarchical structure. Owing to their superior qualities of high-water content, biocompati-bility, degradations, and flexibility, they are attracting a lot of interest for their potential applications as topical drug administration in the form of thin films and as drug carrier vehicles. In this study, we developed a poly (ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propyleneglycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) (Pluronic P123)-based amphiphilic hybrid hydrogel using choline acetate ionic liquid (IL) and additional biocompatible components such as agar, glycerol, and sodium tetraborate. The resulting hybrid hydrogel loaded with iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) was found to be a highly efficient system for drug uptake and delivery which exhibits biodegradable, stimuli -responsive, biocompatible as well as self-healing characteristics. First-principles-based density functional the-ory (DFT) calculations provide greater insights into the nature of intermolecular interactions participating in the formation of the hybrid hydrogel, as confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. With their enormous amenability to modification, prepared hydrogel serves as a promising delivery vehicle of diclofenac sodium (DS) drugs for anti-inflammatory drug delivery.