Design, characterization and evaluation of the drug-loaded chitosan/cerium oxide nanoparticles with pH-controlled drug release

In recent years, polymer/metal oxide nanoparticles as a high-performance nanomaterials have gained great attention in different industrial areas such as biotechnology, cosmetic, automotive, textile, and concrete. In this study, novel chitosan/cerium oxide nanoparticles (Chi/CeO2 NPs) were synthesized to improve the bioavailability of the drug based on the assembly of inorganic nanoparticles at the polymer-NPs interfaces. The surface morphological property, chemical structure and drug release profile of synthesized NPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and UV–visible technique. The particle size of spherical Chi/CeO2 NPs was found to be < 40 nm with a prepotent surface. Different kinetic model parameters such as zero-order, first-order, Higuchi, Bhaskar, and Ritger-Peppas models were calculated to investigate the drug release mechanism. The amount of Methotrexate (MTX) release from the surface of CeO2 NPs and the interface of Chi/CeO2 NPs were found to be 12.4% and 66.26%, respectively. According to experimental results, we observed that interfaces between Chi/CeO2 NPs and MTX in a structure could have a profound effect on the percentage of MTX drug release. We showed that the synthesized inorganic NPs could be proposed potentially as an effective inorganic nanocarrier with controlled MTX release.