We demonstrate a novel structure based on smart carbon nanocomposites intended for fabricating laser-triggered drug delivery devices (DDDs). The performance of the devices relies on nanocomposites’ photothermal effects that are based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with carbon nanoparticles (CNPs). Upon evaluating the main features of the nanocomposites through physicochemical and photomechanical characterizations, we identified the main photomechanical features to be considered for selecting a nanocomposite for the DDDs. The capabilities of the PDMS/CNPs prototypes for drug delivery were tested using rhodamine-B (Rh-B) as a marker solution, allowing for visualizing and quantifying the release of the marker contained within the device. Our results showed that the DDDs readily expel the Rh-B from the reservoir upon laser irradiation and the amount of released Rh-B depends on the exposure time. Additionally, we identified two main Rh-B release mechanisms, the first one is based on the device elastic deformation and the second one is based on bubble generation and its expansion into the device. Both mechanisms were further elucidated through numerical simulations and compared with the experimental results. These promising results demonstrate that an inexpensive nanocomposite such as PDMS/CNPs can serve as a foundation for novel DDDs with spatial and temporal release control through laser irradiation. 相似文献
Albumin has been a popular building block to create nanoparticles for drug delivery purposes. The performance of albumin as a drug carrier can be enhanced by combining protein with polymers, which allows the design of carriers to encompass a broader spectrum of drugs while features unique to synthetic polymers such as stimuli‐responsiveness are introduced. Nanoparticles based on polymer–albumin hybrids can be divided into two classes: one that carries album as a bioactive surface coating and the other that uses albumin as biocompatible, although nonbioactive, building block. Nanoparticles with bioactive albumin surface coating can either be prepared by self‐assembly of albumin–polymer conjugates or by postcoating of existing nanoparticles with albumin. Albumin has also been used as building block, either in its native or denatured form. Existing albumin nanoparticles are coated with polymers, which can influence the degradation of albumin or impact on the drug release. Finally, an alternative way of using albumin by denaturing the protein to generate a highly functional chain, which can be modified with polymer, has been presented. These albumin nanoparticles are designed to be extremely versatile so that they can deliver a wide variety of drugs, including traditional hydrophobic drugs, metal‐based drugs and even therapeutic proteins and siRNA.