Drug-Loaded Supramolecular Gels Prepared in a Microfluidic Platform: Distinctive Rheology and Delivery through Controlled Far-from-Equilibrium Mixing.

ABSTRACT: It is shown here that controlled mixing of a gelator, drug, solvent, and antisolvent in a microfluidic channel leads to faster setting gels and more robust materials with longer release profiles than the physical gels of the same composition obtained using random mixing in solution. The system is similar to a related gelator system we had studied previously, but we were unable to apply the same gelling procedure because of the instability of the colloid caused by the small structural modification (length of the alkyl chain in the bis-imidazolium head group). This situation holds true for the gels formed with varying compositions and under different conditions (gelator/drug ratio, solvent proportion, and flow rates), with the most significant differences being the improved gel rheology and

SUBMITTER: Sathyanarayanan G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6044772 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature