Effect of modified montmorillonite on mechanical and sustained release properties of konjac glucomannan-based...

The KGM-based hydrogels exhibit great potential as a drug delivery material. However, they often fail to meet industrial requirements due to the weak property. In this paper, a simple method was proposed to prepare KGM composite hydrogel by cyclic freeze-thaw method using Fe³⁺ ion as crosslinking agent and modified montmorillonite (CS@MMT) as nano-filler to improve the mechanical and slow release properties. The SEM images reveal that the incorporation of CS@MMT resulted in a compact network architecture within the hydrogel. The tensile strength of the KGM/PVA/Fe³⁺/CS@MMT hydrogel has been significantly enhanced by 250 %, attaining 0.30 MPa, in contrast to 0.12 MPa of the KGM/PVA hydrogel. Furthermore, the loading capacity has been significantly improved, with a loading rate of 52.56 ± 3.30 %, in contrast to 7.75 ± 1.39 % of the KGM/PVA hydrogel. In addition, multiple release kinetics models have proved that KGM/PVA/Fe³⁺/CS@MMT hydrogel has superior controlled slow-release property. In all, this study presents a direct way to enhance the mechanical property and slow-release capability of KGM/PVA hydrogels, which is anticipated to promote the practical applications of the KGM-based hydrogels, especially in the biomedical field, such as drug slow release and wound care.