Preparation and evaluation of polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels with zinc oxide nanoparticles as a drug controlled release agent for a hydrophilic drug

Abstract We report the preparation and application of ZnO/PVA nanocomposite hydrogel containing diclofenac sodium drug (DS) as a drug delivery system. The purpose of designing the nanocomposite hydrogels is to reduce the frequency of use and its side effects, and increase the effect of the drug. The desired nanocomposite hydrogel were prepared through the freezing–melting cycle. The structure and morphology were determined by FTIR and SEM, respectively. The gel fraction increased with adding the nanoparticles, from 67.49 % to 97.69 %. This amount also reaches 97.97 % by adding the drug. The degree of swelling decreased with increasing the amounts of nanoparticles and DS (998 % for PVA-710 % for 1 wt% DS). Based on the result of antibacterial properties and biocompatibility, the inhibition zones around the sample were about 2 mm for Staphylococcus aureus and for Escherichia coli. The cell viability of hydrogel increased from 66.02 % to 79.84 % with increasing the amount of DS. The biodegradation of PVA, is also higher (5–27.17 %) than ZnO/PVA with (3.8–20.2 %) and without (4–23.53 %) drug. The modeling results showed that Peppas–Korsmeyer is a good model for DS release from ZnO/PVA and the diffusion mechanism of DS is Fickian. In this way, we introduced an effective system for drug delivery.