Metronidazole (MTZ) is a widely used drug, but due to its many side effects, there is a growing trend today to use a minimum dose while maintaining high efficacy. One way to meet this demand is to reduce the size of the drug particles. A relatively new method of size reduction is attaching the drug molecules to a mesoporous carrier. In this paper, we studied the fixation of MTZ molecules on mesoporous silica carriers. The drug was immobilized on two mesoporous silica materials (Syloid, SBA-15) with the use of a variety of immersion techniques and solvents. The immobilized drug was subjected to physicochemical examinations (e.g., SEM, XPS, XRD, nitrogen uptake, DSC) and dissolution studies. A significantly higher immobilization was attained on SBA-15 than on a Syloid carrier. Among the processing parameters, the type of MTZ solvent had the highest influence on immobilization. Ultrasonic agitation had a lower but still significant impact, while the concentration of MTZ in the solution made no difference. Under optimal conditions, with the application of an ethyl acetate solution, the surface coverage on SBA-15 reached as much as 91%. The immobilized MTZ exhibited a ca. 10% faster dissolution rate as compared to the pure micron-sized drug particles.
Keywords: SBA-15; dissolution; mesoporous silica material; metronidazole.