Effects of Additives on Calcium Carbonate Particles

Drug carriers that were developed in last decades help improving medicaments with low bioavailability due to low absorption. In addition, the carriers help lowering toxicity caused by poor distribution. Calcium Carbonate (CaCO₃) particles can be used as template cores to make drug carriers, using Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition techniques. Most of the studies have been done using silica beads and not CaCO₃. Silica beads require harsh conditions for melt-down that may damage drug loading. We hypothesize learning how to control the physicochemical properties of CaCO₃ beads such as size and morphology, will provide a versatile platform for assembling LbL drug carriers that can be more specific for the adequate treatment and make the drawback of high polymorphism less relevant. CaCO₃ beads were synthesized using Calcium nitrate (Ca(NO₃)₂) and Sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃). It was shown that adding Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) in the synthesis environment improves the morphology of the CaCO₃ beads. Here we show using another additive in addition to CMC improves further the overall uniformity and morphology of the CaCO₃ spheres. This new composite could be used to assemble new carries for drug loading that can be used to treat different diseases, adding uniformity to the particles and improving pharmacokinetic parameters.