Influence of Poly(d,l-lactide) and processing parameters on morphology of electrosprayed microparticles

Abstract

Controlling the release of drug by controlling the morphology and structure of drug loaded microparticles has attracted attention from researchers due to its benefits of reducing the side effects of drugs and improving effectively the treatment. The electrospray is the useful method to fabricate drug loaded microparticles because of its advantages such as high drug loaded capacity of microparticles, easy manufacture, and biodegradability. This study focused on the effects of the Poly(D,Llactide) acid (PLA) concentration in chloroform solvent and processing parameters such as applied voltage, collecting distance on the microparticles morphology. PLA was used to fabricate microparticles by the electrospray method because of its biocompatibility and biodegradability. Morphology of the particles was observed by the Transmission Electron Microscopy (SEM). The morphology of the particles and the uniformity of the morphology were able to control by adjusting the polymer concentrations (4.4, 5, and 5.5% PLA), voltages (18 kV and 24 kV) and collecting distances (15 cm, 20 cm, and 25 cm). In this study, the optimal parameters which created the uniform and stable spherical particles were 5% PLA, 24 kV, and 20 cm. However, the particles surface was still wrinkle due to using chloroform which has a high evaporation rate.