A geometric pore adsorption model for predicting the drug loading capacity of insoluble drugs in mesoporous carbon.

In this work, a simple and accurate geometric pore-adsorption model was established and experimentally validated for predicting the drug loading capacity in mesoporous carbon. The model was designed according to the shape of pore channels of mesoporous carbon and the arrangement of drug molecules loaded in the pores. Three different small molecule drugs (celecoxib, fenofibrate and carvedilol) were respectively loaded in mesoporous carbon with different pore sizes. In order to test the accuracy of the established model, nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis was employed to confirm the pore structure of mesoporous carbon and to calculate the occupation volume of the adsorbed drugs. The adsorption isotherms of celecoxib were systematically investigated to describe the adsorption process. It was found that the experimental results of adsorption capacity were all in the range of the predicted values for all the tested drugs and mesoporous carbon. The occupation volumes calculated from the model also agreed well with the experimental data. These results demonstrated that the established model could accurately provide the range of drug loading capacity, which may provide a useful option for the prediction of the drug loading capacity of small molecule drugs in mesoporous materials.