Synthesis of multicomponent hydrogel as a delivery system for anticancer drug doxorubicin

Hydrogels are the three dimensional networks from hydrophilic polymers which can absorb a lot of water. Hydrogels are widely used in the various fields, including drug delivery 1 and dye absorption.2 Cellulose and chitin are the abundant natural biopolymer from renewable sources and chitosan was obtained by alkaline deacetylation of chitin. These polysaccharides are non-toxic, biodegradable, and biocompatible and have different applications such as drug delivery systems.3 Herein, we developed a multicomponent hydrogel by combination of chitosan, cellulose nanowhisker and graphene (Scheme 1). A synthetic linker was applied as the crosslinking agent, which connect graphene sheets, chitosan chain, and nanowhisker together by forming a reversible linkage. The hydrogel was pH-responsive and was used for in vitro study of the anticancer drug doxorubicin delivery.

Keywords:

Cellulose nanowhisker , Chitosan , Graphene , Hydrogel