Preparation of core-shell PAN nanofibers encapsulated α-tocopherol acetate and ascorbic acid 2-phosphate for photoprotection.

Magnesium l-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (MAAP) and α-tocopherol acetate (α-TAc), as the stable vitamin C and vitamin E derivative, respectively, are often applied to skin care products for reducing UV damage. The encapsulation of MAAP (0.5%, g/mL) and α-TAc (5%, g/mL) together within the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers was demonstrated using a coaxial electrospinning technique. The structure and morphology characterizations of the core-shell fibers MAAP/α-TAc-PAN were investigated by SEM, FTIR and XRD. As a negative control, the blend nanofibers MAAP/α-TAc/PAN were prepared from a normal electrospinning method. The results from SEM indicated that the morphology and diameter of the nanofibers were influenced by concentration of spinning solution, the polymer component of the shell, the carrying agent of the core and the fabricating methods, and the core-shell nanofibers obtained at the concentration of 8% had finer and uniform structure with the average diameters of 200 ± 15nm. From in vitro release studies it could be seen that both different fiber specimens showed a gradual increase in the amount of α-TAc or MAAP released from the nanofibers. Furthermore, α-TAc and MAAP released from the blend nanofibers showed the burst release at the maximum release of ∼15% and ∼40% during the first 6h, respectively, but their release amount from the core-shell nanofibers was only 10-12% during the initial part of the process. These results showed that core-shell nanofibers alleviated the initial burst release and gave better sustainability compared to that of the blend nanofibers. The present study would provide a basis for further optimization of processing conditions to obtain desired structured core-shell nanofibers and release kinetics for practical applications in dermal tissue.