Development of alginate, cellulose and chitosan-based hybrid multicomponent films containing TAB@CuBTC MOFs:...

Here, we report alginate (ALG), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), and chitosan (CHS) hybrid films incorporating CuBTC metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) containing a bioactive 2-aminothiophene derivative (TAB). Crystallite sizes estimated by the Debye-Scherrer and Williamson-Hall methods were 49.47/49.84 nm for CuBTC and 45.96/58.71 nm for TAB@CuBTC, respectively, suggesting possible strain-related broadening in TAB@CuBTC. UV-Vis mass-balance analysis gave a TAB loading capacity of 19.98 ± 0.92 wt% for the 45 mg feed. Nitrogen physisorption showed decreases in BET surface area from ~581.3 to ~123.2 m²/g and total pore volume from ~0.257 to ~0.086 cm³/g after TAB incorporation, indicating reduced accessible porosity. TAB release was pH-dependent, with the apparent zero-order rate constant (k₀) increasing from 0.0983%·h^-1 at pH 8.5 to 0.1514%·h^-1 at pH 4.5, corresponding to an approximately 54% higher apparent release rate under acidic conditions. The hybrid films showed formulation- and time-dependent cytocompatibility, with cell viability at 10 wt% ranging from 57.6 ± 6.5% to 98.7 ± 0.3%. Antibacterial activity depended on polymer matrix and bacterial strain. CHS/TAB@CuBTC produced inhibition zones of 12.7 ± 1.1 mm against Pseudomonas sp. and 14.8 ± 2.5 mm against Serratia marcescens, whereas CMC/TAB@CuBTC showed 18.2 ± 1.7 mm against Bacillus subtilis and 11.0 ± 0.5 mm against Klebsiella sp. Overall, the results demonstrate a multicomponent hybrid-film platform combining pH-dependent TAB release with matrix-dependent cytocompatibility and antibacterial performance.