MgO Nanoparticles for Effective Uptake and Release of Doxorubicin Drug: pH Sensitive Controlled Drug Release

Magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO Nps) were successfully synthesised at low temperature by precipitation method and unambiguously characterised by analytical techniques such as UV-Visible spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The adsorption of anticancer drug, doxorubicin (doxo), on MgO Nps was studied in dark room at different concentrations. The adsorption equilibrium data obeyed Henry and Freundlich models with spontaneous affinity toward the surface of MgO Nps with ΔG° of −1.0 kJ/mol. The doxorubicin release from MgO Nps was also performed at various pH in dark room to evaluate the kinetic of drug release using various mathematical models. It is observed that the doxo release increases with decrease in pH, attributed to dissolution of MgO Nps and neutralising the surface charge of MgO Nps. At acidic pH, the obtained release data followed Hixson-Crowell model, proposes erosion dependent release system, compared to Higuchi that confirmed the increase in doxo release is due to dissolution of MgO Nps. The obtained results suggest the MgO Nps will play a prominent role in drug delivery system as drug carrier and drug deliver.