Templated synthesis of polymer nanocapsules: the role of template characteristics in dictating the efficiency of drug delivery systems

The fabrication and employment of nano-size vehicles for the effective delivery of drugs for therapeutic applications is an emerging and promising field in nanotechnology. Although a diverse range of drug delivery vehicles exist today, most lack the finer control over their size and monodispersity which is essential if they are to be introduced into the body. This thesis exploits template particles for the fabrication of polymeric nanocapsules with structurally unique characteristics. To achieve this, silica nanoparticles acting as templates were first investigated, where the effects of the experimental parameters on the size and monodispersity of the templates was explored and optimised using both single and multivariable experiments, so that the particles could be tailored to their required application. Following template fabrication, a comparison study of two template-facilitated approaches to nanocapsules synthesis were investigate and the combination of the solid core/mesoporous shell (SC/MS) approach along with the polymer material chitosan was found to be the most effective drug delivery system (DDS). Through modification of the same SC/MS approach, seven structurally unique chitosan nanocapsules were fabricated and the size of the vehicle was identified to be the most influential characteristic when comparing the cytotoxic efficiency. The body of this work identifies a promising nanocapsular drug delivery system for the future, which was demonstrated good control over the size and monodispersity of the nanocapsules, a high loading capacity for the water-liable drug curcumin, biocompatibility and high cytotoxic efficiency when the drug is incorporated.