Thermo-acoustical analysis of sodium dodecyl sulfate: Fluconazole (antifungal drug) based micellar system in hydro-ethanol solutions for potential drug topical application

•The mixed micellar system was analyzed for sodium dodecyl sulfate and fluconazole.•Early micellization was found with CMC shift towards lower surfactant concentration.•Negative ΔGmo values suggested that the micelle formation is spontaneous and feasible.•Thermo-acoustical parameters revealed the existence of intermolecular interactions within the molecules.

Micellar systems hold excellent drug delivery applications due to their capability to solubilize a large number of hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules. In this present work, the mixed micelle formation between the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and the ‘Azole’ derivative antifungal drug fluconazole (FLZ) have been studied at four temperatures in different hydro-ethanolic solutions. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) was determined by specific conductance techniques and the experimental data was used to calculate several useful thermodynamic parameters, like standard free energy, enthalpy and entropy of micelle formation. Early micellization was found with critical micelle concentration shifting towards lower concentration (CMC) than the standard concentration of SDS in water at 25 °C suggesting that drug and the solvent system facilitates the micellization process. In addition, the transport properties were examined by employing controlled approaches likely, apparent molar volume (ϕv), apparent molar adiabatic compression (ϕk), and isentropic compression (κs) of SDS in presence of FLZ. These parameters revealed the existence of intermolecular interactions within the molecules. Therefore, this study would cast light on utilizing surfactant immobilized FLZ system for better topical biological action.

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