Investigation of the effect of montmorillonite clay on the drug delivery system

Clays are widely used especially in the ceramics, paper, plastic, rubber industry and in the production of dyestuffs because of their formability. With the renewed technology, the use of clay in medicine has increased in recent years. Clay minerals are used as a major component in medicinal products due to their large surface areas, high adsorption capacity and interfacial properties. Natural clay minerals such as kaolin, halloysite, montmorillonite play an active role in controlled drug release systems due to these properties. Montmorillonite (MMT) is a clay mineral belonging to the smectite group commonly used in drug delivery systems to control and improve pharmaceutical properties of drugs, including solubility, dissolution rate and adsorption. Ciprofloxacin (CPx) is taken in the quinolon group of antibiotics and is commonly used in urinary tract infections. It is mainly the antibiotic that shows absorption in the proximal regions of the gastrointestinal tract. Controlled release of ciprofloxacin with antibacterial properties by adsorption on natural clays such as kaolin and montmorillonite is ensured. In this study, MMT-CPx nanocomposite will be synthesized and coated with titanium dioxide. Controlled release of ciprofloxacin from the obtained nanocomposite will be examined. Characterization of nanocomposites will be examined by analysis of XRD, FTIR, zeta potential and BET surface area. For kinetic analysis of release data, the zero-degree kinetic equation, the first-degree Higuchi model and the Korsmeyer-Peppas equation will be used.