Supercritical carbon dioxide-assisted drug loading and release from biocompatible porous metal–organic frameworks

Abstract

Herein we describe the supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂)-assisted drug loading and release from nontoxic and biocompatible porous iron(III) polycarboxylate metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), which exhibited very high cargo loadings and gradual release. MIL-53(Fe) and MIL-100(Fe) were investigated as potential carriers for drug molecules, using ibuprofen as a model drug candidate. The loading and release behaviour of ibuprofen were monitored by thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) measurements to quantitatively determine the ibuprofen uptake, and have been performed for the first time using scCO₂-based technology. After the preparation of the MOFs within a particular solvent, the internal surface area of MIL-53(Fe) and MIL-100(Fe) increased as a result of the scCO₂ drying method. Furthermore, ibuprofen could be impregnated into the pores of the MOFs by utilizing a scCO₂–hexane solution. ScCO₂-assisted impregnation could also be used to deliver ibuprofen to the pores of the MOFs. As a result, a large amount of ibuprofen was able to be loaded into MIL-53(Fe) and MIL-100(Fe).