In-Vitro Investigation of CPH Drug-Montmorillonite Clay Interaction

The aim of the present work is to explore a naturally occurring clay mineral Montmorillonite (MMT), purified from raw Yemeni bentonite clay, as adsorbent material for ciprofloxacin hydrochloride antibiotic (CPH) in order to investigate the interaction of CPH and MMT. CPH-MMT composites were synthesized and the study design involved the investigation of the effect of three variables, namely; the time, pH and concentration of drug, on the intercalation process. The drug loading and recovery mechanisms were examined and supported by diffusion kinetics laws and adsorption isotherm models. The statistical analysis of the effect of different factors on the adsorption process showed that there was a significant difference in the amount of CPH drug that adsorbed due to variations in these factors. This study showed that the equilibrium time attained after 4 hours and the pH of the drug solution played a crucial role in the intercalation process and the adsorption isotherm was fitted by the Langmuir model with maximum adsorption and followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics. Ciprofloxacin hydrochloride is proved to successfully intercalate into the interlayers of MMT. The intercalation of a drug in MMT follows pseudo-second order kinetics. It is recommended that the overall rate of the adsorption procedure is expected to be controlled by the chemical adsorption process. The adsorption process follows the Langmuir model with a maximum amount of CPH intercalated in MMT being 263.15mg/g. This indicates the homogeneous nature of the MMT surface and the formation of monolayer coverage of CPH on the surface of MMT.