Microencapsulation of phase change material (PCM) n-octadecane was carried out by interfacial polymerization technique using core and bulk monomers as toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI) and diethylene triamine (DETA), respectively. Cyclohexane was used as the solvent for TDI and n-octadecane, which formed the oil phase. The effect of encapsulation procedure, core-to-monomer ratio (CM ratio) and PCM-to-cyclohexane (PC) ratio was investigated on core content, encapsulation efficiency, and stability of microcapsules. Using a modified procedure, the core content was found to increase with the increasing CM ratio and reached a maximum at 3.7, while the encapsulation efficiency continuously decreased with the increasing CM ratio. Also the encapsulation efficiency was found to have a strong dependence on PC ratio and a maximum encapsulation efficiency of 92%, along with the core content of 70% was obtained with CM ratio of 3.7 along with the PC ratio of 6. The microcapsules were well shaped, i.e., round and regular, with narrow size distribution at these conditions. The PCM microcapsules were found to be stable to heat treatment at 1508C for 8 h.
Present investigation involves the development of a bi-layer dressing of gelatin nanofibrous mat loaded with epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)/poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel and its in-vivo evaluation on full-thickness excision wounds in experimental Wistar rats. Nanomorphological observation, porosity, effect of crosslinking on tensile strength, physical stability and drug release profile in phosphate buffer and biocompatibility aspects of electrospun nanomat were investigated by various physico-chemical tools. EGCGa release profile was found to increase from 2-4 days with decreasing crosslinking time from 15 to 5 min. PVA hydrogels were prepared by freeze-thaw method and has been utilized as a protective and hydrating outer layer of the bi-layer dressing. Topical application of bi-layer composite dressing loaded with EGCG improve the healing rate in experimental rats as acute wounds model which was evidenced by significant increase in DNA (approximately 42%), total protein (approximately 32%), hydroxyproline (approximately 26%) and hexosamine approximately 24%) contents. A faster wound contraction was observed in wounds treated with composite dressing from approximately 14% to 47%. Histopathological examination revealed significant improvement in angiogenesis, re-epithelialization and less inflammatory response in comparison to control. Van-Gieson's collagen stains revealed matured, compact and parallel deposition of collagen fibrils on day 12. These results were supported by up-regulated expressions of matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs-2 and 9) by gelatin zymography. Control release of EGCG, 3D porous architecture of nanofibrous scaffolds as well as moist microenvironment provides ideal conditions for uninterrupted wound healing.
Temperature sensitive random linear and crosslinked copolymers of N-tert-butylacrylamide (NTBA) and acrylamide (Am) were synthesized by the solution polymerization method, using regulated dosing of comonomer Am having a higher reactivity ratio (r Am ϭ 1.5) than NTBA (r NTBA ϭ 0.5). Copolymers with varying feed ratios of NTBA and Am (80 : 20 to 20 : 80 mol %) were synthesized and characterized. For the synthesis of copolymer hydrogels, NЈ, N-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) (1.13 mol %) was used along with monomers. The effect of composition on transition properties was evaluated for the linear copolymers and their hydrogels. A definite trend was observed. The incorporation of a higher percentage of the hydrophilic comonomer Am in the structure resulted in the shifting of the transition temperature towards a higher value. The transition temperatures of the copolymers synthesized with feed compositions of 80 : 20, 70 : 30, 60 : 40, 50 : 50, 40 : 60, 30 : 70, and 20 : 80 mol % were found to be 2, 10, 19, 27, 37, 45, and 58°C, respectively. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies confirmed the formation of random copolymers. The copolymers synthesized with a monomer feed ratio of 50 : 50 with regulated dosing showed a single glass transition temperature (T g ) at 168°C, while the copolymer synthesized with full dosing of Am at the beginning of the reaction showed two T g s, at 134 and 189°C. The copolymer samples were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for ascertaining the composition. The composition of the copolymers followed the trend of the feed ratio, but the incorporation of NTBA in the copolymers was found to be lower than the feed ratio because of lower than quantitative yields of the reactions.
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