Fabrication and Characterization of Gelatin/Chitosan Microspheres for Drug Release

Abstract

Gelatin/chitosan (Gel/Cs) microspheres were fabricated through an emulsification-solvent evaporation technique using saturated glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking reagent. The influences of the concentration of the emulsifier, stirring speed, and water/oil ratio on particle size and surface morphology were investigated. The experimental results indicated that the particle size of the microspheres decreased with increasing concentration of the emulsifier; however, the microsphere size did not change when the concentration of the emulsifier exceeded 0.016 g·mL⁻¹. The particle diameter of the microspheres decreased with increasing stirring speed and increased with increasing water/oil ratio. The concentration of an acetone/water solution had an obvious effect on the morphologies of the Gel/Cs microspheres during the course of dehydration; the surface of the microspheres became smooth when dehydrated by an acetone solution with a volume ratio of 3:1.

Keywords:

• characterization
• chitosan
• composite microspheres
• fabrication
• gelatin

Acknowledgment

This work was financially supported by the Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department (No. 11B045) and the Planning Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province, P. R. China (No. 2010SK3060).