Chemically Modified Polyvinyl Chloride for Removal of Thionine Dye (Lauth's Violet).

The chemical modification of hydrophobic polymer matrices is an alternative way to elchange their surface properties. The introduction of sulfonic groups in the polymer changes the surface properties such as adhesion, wettability, catalytic ability, and adsorption capacity. This work describes the production and application of chemically modified polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as adsorbent for dyes removal. Chemical modification of PVC was evaluated by infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis, which indicated the presence of sulfonic groups on PVC. The chemically modified PVC (PVCDS) showed an ion exchange capacity of 1.03 mmol-1, and efficiently removed the thionine dye (Lauth's violet) from aqueous solutions, reaching equilibrium in 30 min. The adsorption kinetics was better adjusted for a pseudo second order model. This result indicates that the adsorption of thionine onto PVCDS occurs by chemisorption. Among the models for the state of equilibrium, SIPS and Langmuir exhibited the best fit to the experimental results and PVCDS showed high adsorption capacities (370 mg-1). Thus, it is assumed that the system presents homogeneous characteristics to the distribution of active sites. The modification promoted the formation of surface characteristics favorable to the dye adsorption by the polymer.

Cellulose triacetate films obtained from sugarcane bagasse: Evaluation as coating and mucoadhesive material for drug delivery systems.

Cellulose triacetate (CTA) films were produced from cellulose extracted from sugarcane bagasse. The films were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water vapor permeability (WVP), mechanical properties (MP), enzymatic digestion (ED), and mucoadhesive properties evaluation (MPE). WVP showed that more concentrated films have higher values; asymmetric films had higher values than symmetric films. MP showed that symmetric membranes are more resistant than asymmetric ones. All films presented high mucoadhesiveness. From the WVP and MP results, a symmetric membrane with 6.5% CTA was selected for the coating of gellan gum (GG) particles incorporating ketoprofen (KET). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the CTA coating does not influence the thermal stability of the particles. Coated particles released 100% of the KET in 24h, while uncoated particles released the same amount in 4h. The results highlight the CTA potential in the development of new controlled oral delivery systems.

Controlled release of drugs from cellulose acetate matrices produced from sugarcane bagasse: monitoring by square-wave voltammetry.

In this paper, cellulose triacetate (CTA) was produced from sugarcane bagasse and used as matrices for controlled release of paracetamol. Symmetric and asymmetric membranes were obtained by formulations of CTA/dichloromethane/drug and CTA/dichloromethane/water/drug, respectively, and they were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Different morphologies of membranes were observed by SEM, and the incorporation of paracetamol was confirmed by lowering of the glass transition temperature (Tg) in the DSC curves. This indicates the existence of interactions between the matrix and the drug. The evaluation of drug release was based on the electrochemical monitoring of paracetamol through its oxidation at a glassy carbon electrode surface using square-wave voltammetry (SWV), which provides fast, precise and accurate in situ measurements. The studies showed a content release of 27% and 45% by the symmetric and asymmetric membranes, respectively, during 8 h.