Influence of drug distribution and solubility on release from geopolymer pellets--a finite element method study

This study investigates the influence of drug solubility and distribution on its release from inert geopolymer pellets of three different sizes (1.5 × 1.5, 3 × 6, and 6 × 6 mm), having the same geopolymer composition and containing highly potent opioid fentanyl, sumatriptan, theophylline, or saccharin. Scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen sorption, drug solubility, permeation, and release experiments were performed, and estimates of the drug diffusion coefficients and solubilities in the geopolymer matrix were derived with the aid of finite element method (FEM). FEM was further employed to investigate the effect of a nonuniform drug distribution on the drug release profile. When inspecting the release profiles for each drug, it was observed that their solubilities in the geopolymer matrix imposed a much greater influence on the drug release rate than their diffusion coefficients. Concentrating the initial drug load in FEM into nonuniformly distributed drug regions inside the matrix created drug release profiles that more closely resembled experimental data than an FEM-simulated uniform drug distribution did. The presented FEM simulations and visualization of drug release from geopolymers under varying initial and dynamic conditions should open up for more systematic studies of additional factors that influence the drug release profile from porous delivery vehicles.