Sodium alginate-halloysite nanotube gel beads as potential delivery system for sunitinib malate anticancer compound

Abstract In this contribution, the preparation of alginate beads with different amount of halloysite nanotubes is described in the presence of Ca2+ ions as cross-linker. The synthesized beads, called SA-Haln, were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction powder (XRD), and thermogravimetric (TGA) technique. Furthermore, for the first time, the drug delivery performance of the beads was evaluated toward sunitinib malate, STM, as an anticancer model drug. The results showed that the incorporation of various amount of halloysite in the beads structure could be affected and modulated their properties remarkably. 80.4%, 65.6% and 58.4 % STM encapsulation efficiency (EE %) were observed for SA-Hal 0, SA-Hal 5 and SA-Hal 10, respectively.