Visible Light Triggered Drug Release from TiO2 Nanotube Arrays: A Novel Controllable Antibacterial Platform

TL;DR

This study presents a visible-light triggered drug delivery system using TiO2 nanotube arrays with gold nanoparticles, enabling controllable antibiotic release and antibacterial activity through photocatalytic mechanisms.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel visible-light responsive drug release platform based on TiO2 nanotubes with gold nanoparticles and hydrophobic caps, allowing precise control of drug release kinetics.

Findings

Effective visible-light triggered antibiotic release demonstrated

Controllable drug release achieved with silane-grafted hydrophilic bottom layer

Antibacterial activity confirmed through release studies

Abstract

In this work, we use a double-layered stack of TiO2 nanotubes (TiNTs) to construct a visible-light triggered drug delivery system. Key for visible-light drug release is a hydrophobic cap on the nanotubes containing Au nanoparticles (AuNPs). The AuNPs allow for a photocatalytic scission of the hydrophobic chain under visible light. To demonstrate the principle, we loaded antibiotic (ampicillin sodium (AMP)) in the lower part of the TiO2 nanotube stack, triggered visible light induced release, and carried out antibacterial studies. The release from the platform becomes most controllable if the drug is silane-grafted in hydrophilic bottom layer for drug storage. Thus visible-light photocatalysis can also determine the release kinetics of the active drug from the nanotube wall.