Facile Fabrication of Polyelectrolyte Complex Nanoparticles Based on Chitosan – Poly-2-Acrylamido-2-Methylpropane Sulfonic Acid as a Potential Drug Carrier Material

Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) are attractive materials for drug delivery application as they offer simple preparations and high drug-loading efficiency. In this study, a novel method for preparing polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles using a simple mixing method of chitosan and poly-2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (PAMPS) solutions is presented. The effect of chitosan concentrations was examined by fixing the PAMPS concentration at 0.01 %w/v, while chitosan concentrations were varied from 0.01 to 0.05 %w/v. Based on dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta sizer results, increasing the chitosan concentration led to increased average PEC particle sizes with broader particle distributions from 249.1 (polydispersity index/PDI 0.13) to 318.2 nm (PDI 0.19) and changed the particle surface charges from -5.85±0.34 to 11.95±0.84 mV. The addition of glutaraldehyde (GA) followed by dialysis eliminated sodium chloride (NaCl) and produced spherical PEC nanoparticles, confirmed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results. Among those samples, PECs with a chitosan concentration of 0.01 %w/v are the most promising drug carrier materials due to their negative surface charges, which promote prolonged circulation time in the bloodstream.