Green magnetic nanomaterial as antibiotic release vehicle: The release of pefloxacin and ofloxacin

Abstract The increased efflux of fluoroquinolone antibiotics to the environment has become of worldwide concern due to their potential to disturb aquatic ecosystems. How to improve the antibiotic release is a challenge. In this work, magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles as a drug release vehicle were prepared using the green synthesis method. It is a simple and environmental friendly technique that employs the plant extract as a reducing and coating agent during the preparation process. Antibiotics ofloxacin and pefloxacin served as the drug model and the drug release behavior was tested at various pH levels. The release efficiency of ofloxacin from Fe3O4 reached 99.6% and for pefloxacin it was 57.0% at 310 K after 120 h (pH 10.5). The scanning electron microscope images show that Fe3O4 particles ranged in size from 10 to 40 nm and magnetism testing indicated that saturation magnetization was 58.7 emu/g. Furthermore, zeta potential, FTIR, UV-VIS, XRD and XPS were used to provide the evidence to support the release mechanism, where was based on the pH control. Our work clearly demonstrated that Fe3O4 nanoparticles were a potential as a targeted drug delivery system.