Application of experimental design in the preparation of Chitosan/Carrageenan nanoparticles by polyelectrolyte complexation: Study of the effect of salt addition

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Inês Rocheta de Almeida Vasques da
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/15280
• topic: Carragenina; Complexação polieletrolítica; Nanopartículas; Quitosano; Sais; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Médicas::Outras Ciências Médicas

Chitosan (CS) and carrageenan (CRG), two marine-derived polymers, were selected as matrix materials for the preparation of nanoparticles by polyelectrolyte complexation. The effect of polymer concentration in the production of CS/CRG nanoparticles and on the characteristics of the final product (size and zeta potential) was studied. Furthermore, an experimental design was used to evaluate the effect of adding three different salts, NaCl, CaCl2 and Na2SO4, to the formulations. From the obtained results, different mathematical models were established, allowing to have a tool to predict the characteristics of the nanoparticles according to the production parameters. Overall, the results permitted drawing some conclusions, including the fact that the concentration of CRG in the formulations did not impact the size of the nanoparticles and the observation that the inclusion of Na2SO4, even at a concentration of 0.006M, which is considered low, results in the production of micro-sized carriers instead of nanoparticles. For NaCl and CaCl2 it was observed that there was an inversion in the pattern of evolution of NP size with variation of CS concentration when the salt concentration increased. Nevertheless, there was a significant lack of fit of the model regarding the size, which indicates that an improvement is necessary to better fit the data. Regarding the zeta potential, and as expected, a general increase was seen with the increase of CS concentration, although some deviations to this normal behaviour were observed that deserve further testing. The concentrations used for these salts might not have been enough to produce a noticeable effect in the particles’ characteristics. As the concentration of the salts were not liable to increase, since they were at the highest concentration possible that guaranteed polymer solubility, other salts could be tested in the future.