Dendritic star polymer of polyacrylamide based on a β-cyclodextrin trimer: a flocculant and drug vehicle

The present investigation involves a water treatment study of polyacrylamide (PAM), and star polymers of polyacrylamide based on β-cyclodextrin (β-CD-PAM) and β-cyclodextrin trimer (3-β-CD-PAM). Studies on the drug loading and in vitro drug release of diclofenac sodium (DS) and doxorubicin (DOX), separately, using β-CD-PAM and 3-β-CD-PAM have also been conducted. β-CD-PAM and 3-β-CD-PAM, synthesized by grafting PAM onto β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and β-cyclodextrin trimer (3-β-CD), respectively, have been employed as flocculants for kaolin suspensions and in the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye. In flocculation and dye removal tests 3-β-CD-PAM has exhibited the better performance among the three polymers. β-CD-PAM and 3-β-CD-PAM have been loaded with DS to prepare drug loaded polymers viz. β-CD-PAM-DS and 3-β-CD-PAM-DS respectively, and with DOX to prepare β-CD-PAM-DOX and 3-β-CD-PAM-DOX respectively. The loading of the drugs has been examined by UV analysis, dynamic light scattering and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. Furthermore, the drug loaded polymers have been employed in an in vitro drug release study in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at 37 ± 0.5 °C and pH 7.4.