Controlling the drug delivery efficiency of chitosan-based systems through silver nanoparticles and oxygen plasma.

Today, curcumin's therapeutic properties are used in drug delivery systems. In this work, chitosan (CS) /Montmorillonite (MMT) hydrogels were synthesized to improve the performance of curcumin molecules. According to the results, drug release characteristics of CS/MMT/curcumin highly depend on the pH of the environment and properties of Ag nanoparticles. Moreover, curcumin and Ag nanoparticles were placed under the influence of oxygen plasma. Our results indicate that oxygen plasma, as a simple, clean, and environment-friendly method, can be used as an effective method for controlling the efficiency of drug release and antibacterial characteristics of curcumin molecules in hydrogels. In this case, by increasing the exposure time of the samples under the influence of oxygen plasma, their antibacterial properties and drug release efficiency are significantly enhanced.