Study of adsorption, controlled release, and photodegradation of curcumin in mesoporous silica SBA-15

• Grant number: 19/05131-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: September 30, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Fábio Simões de Vicente
• Grantee: Julia Coelho Tagliaferro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Mesoporous sílica SBA-15 has high surface area and a network of nanometric pores with hexagonal structure that makes these materials excellent adsorbents of a variety of molecules. SBA-15 is an inert material from the environmental point of view, being well tolerated by living beings and can be used as carrier and for drug delivery. Curcumin is an active component from Indian Saffron , of low toxicity that exhibits bactericidal and fungicidal properties and whose photodynamic effect when in water reservoirs has been studied for its potential to control mosquito larvae such as Aedes Aegypti, a transmitter of Dengue. The curcumin molecule is photosensitive and may undergo photodegradation and decrease its effectiveness when exposed to daylight. One of the objectives of this work is to incorporate the curcumin molecule into the SBA-15 silica pores to study the adsorption potential of curcumin in solution on SBA-15. Another point will be the study of the release process of curcumin adsorbed on SBA-15 when dispersed in aqueous solution. Due to the photosensitivity of curcumin, the study of the optical properties (UV-VIS absorption and emission) of both curcumin in solution and curcumin adsorbed on SBA-15 silica is of utmost importance. From the point of view of characterization of the photostability of the materials will be studied the photodegradation of samples of curcumin in solution and curcumin adsorbed on the SBA-15, when exposed to visible and ultraviolet light.