Intermolecular Interactions and the Release Pattern of Electrospun Curcumin-Polyvinyl(pyrrolidone) Fiber.

An electrospun fiber of polyvinyl(pyrrolidone) (PVP)-Tween 20 (T20) with curcumin as the encapsulated drug has been developed. A study of intermolecular interactions was performed using Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The Raman and FT-IR studies showed that curcumin preferrably interacted with T20 and altered PVP chain packing, as supported by XRD and physical stability data. The hydroxyl stretching band in PVP shifted to a lower wavenumber with higher intenstity in the presence of curcumin and PVP, indicating that hydrogen bond formation is more intense in a curcumin or curcumin-T20 containing fiber. The thermal pattern of the fiber did not indicate phase separation. The conversion of curcumin into an amorphous state was confirmed by XRD analysis. An in vitro release study in phosphate buffer pH 6.8 showed that intermolecular interactions between each material influenced the drug release rate. However, low porosity was found to limit the hydrogen bond-mediated release.