The effect of solute-membrane interaction on solute permeation under supersaturated conditions

The purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of solute-membrane interaction under supersaturated conditions on the transport of model solute (salicylic acid) across poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) membrane. Supersaturated systems with a degree of saturation (DS) up to 8 were prepared using a molecular form technique with water as the vehicle to minimize the vehicle-membrane interaction. The spectroscopic and thermal analysis revealed the presence of both hydrogen bonding and nonpolar interaction between the solute and PDMS. Upon treatment by supersaturated solutions the degree of solute-membrane interaction increased with increasing DS. This enhanced the barrier property of PDMS and thus led to the flux attenuation compared to that calculated by Higuchi equation. This work highlighted the importance of solute-membrane interaction under supersaturation in the flux reduction, which should be considered when designing, and optimizing supersaturated topical and transdermal drug delivery systems.

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