Chemical and structural characterization of hybrid delivery systems studied by FTIR, NMR, and SAS techniques

Abstract

In recent years, the research for new classes of materials for biomedical applications has directed the synthesis and design of hybrid systems composed of two or more components (metals, clays, ceramics, bioglass, polymers, lipids, enzymes) conferring to them multifunctional properties, in general synergistic, different to those obtained for their parent components. One of the main advantages attributed to hybrid systems is their ability to modulate the drug release rate into the biological medium, which improve their therapeutic efficacy. However, this enhanced biomedical performance is a result of chemical interactions among material components that assume different levels of structural organization. This chapter provides a discussion about applications of three physicochemical techniques used for characterizing those materials, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and small-angle scattering. Therefore a brief introduction on fundamental techniques followed by a discussion on relationships between composition and main chemical and structural finding are covered.