Preparation of Hydrophobic Antimicrobal Compounds Encapsulated Nanoparticles Using Alkoxysilane-functionalized Amphiphilic Polymer Precursor and Their Antimicrobial Properties

Abstract

In this study, nanoparticles which encapsulated hydrophobic antimicrobial compounds with 50wt% of payload and 70%of solid content were prepared. These nanoparticles could be dispersed at water as well as various medium. Water dispersible organic-inorganic (O-I) hybrid nanoparticles were first prepared using alkoxysilane-functionalized amphiphilic polymer precursors through a conventional sol-gel process. Hydrophobic antimicrobial compound, Eugenol encapsulated nanoparticles were prepared using these O-I hybrid nanoparticles through a new nanoprecipitation process. The effect of various preparation on the size of nanoparticles, amount of payload, antimicrobial activity, and release rate of encapsulated compounds was investigated. All eugenol-encapsulated O-I nanoparticles regardless of preparation condition showed the same minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) (50mg/ml) and 99% of antimicrobial activity for every strain. Their antimicrobial activity could maintain longer than two weeks. Especially, eugenol-encapsulated O-I nanoparticles prepared using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) exhibited the highest payload (50wt%) and the lowest release rate which was owing to higher inorganic content in the O-I nanoparticles. And these O-I nanoparticles dispersed in hexanediol (HD) showed the highest antimicrobial activity and solid content (70wt%) because HD acted as a solvent as well as a antimicrobial agent.