Investigation of electrical stimulus on chitosan film based DDS

Controlled drug release is crucial for targeted implant smart drug delivery system (DDS). In this work a chitosan film loaded with green food coloring is fabricated to demonstrate the concepts of drug release using electrical stimulus. A simulation model is also developed to explain the physical phenomena of this drug release using finite element method (FEM). It is found that drug delivery is increased with applied electric field to the electrodes on chitosan film. The AC electrokinetic force generated from electrical excitation is a factor influencing this phenomenon. Several controlled and stimuli experiments are conducted with different electric fields and frequencies. The spectral absorbance of treated solution after the experiment is measured using a spectrophotometer to quantify the dye release. It is verified statistically with 99% level of significance that the amount of dye release has increased with applied electric field. Thus this work has shown that application of electric field can be a potential candidate for controlled DDS using chitosan film.