Abstract
Na-vermiculite (Na-VMT) was exchanged with different contents of chlorhexidine acetate (CA) to prepare a CA intercalated Na-VMT (CA-VMT) hybrid, and then the morphology, interlayer arrangement, thermal stability, diffusion process and antibacterial property of the CA-VMT hybrid were evaluated. The results showed that CA was successfully intercalated into the interlayer of VMT with a lateral bilayer or lateral trilayer arrangement. In vitro release property of the CA-VMT hybrid suggested that the VMT clay material could serve as an advanced drug delivery carrier with a heterogeneous diffusion process. The inhibition zones of the CA-VMT3 (with 33·7 mass-% of CA) on Escherichia coli and Staphylococci aureus were 16·7 and 14·5 mm respectively. The results indicated that CA-VMT hybrid had strong activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 21006038, 51172099, 51102115 and 20971028), the Natural Science key Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (grant no.10251007002000000), the Foundation of Enterprise University Research Institute Cooperation from Guangdong Province and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. 2010B090301036) and the Foundation of Enterprise University Research of Huadu District (grant no.HD10CXY-G004).