Novel synthesis of Fe-containing mesoporous carbons and their release of ibuprofen

A simple route has been developed to synthesize magnetic Fe-containing mesoporous carbon by an incipient-wetness impregnation technique without using a solvent. The materials were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, N2 sorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and physical property measurements. The species of iron in the resulting carbons were metallic α-Fe and magnetite Fe3O4/γ-Fe2O3. The ordering of the mesostructure, the specific surface area and the total pore volumes decreased with the increasing amount of FeCl3 used. The saturation magnetization strength could be easily adjusted by changing the amount of FeCl3 used in the synthesis. Ibuprofen (IBU) release behavior from the materials showed that the release rate of IBU increased with the increase of the order and loading degree.

Graphical abstractA simple route has been developed to synthesize magnetic Fe-containing mesoporous carbons by an incipient–wetness impregnation technique without using a solvent. The magnetization curves for the M-C-0.5, M-C-1.0 and M-C-1.5 (Figure a) presented no hysteresis loop, indicating that the samples exhibited superparamagnetic characteristics desirable for their application in separation and targeted drug delivery under an external magnetic field. The corresponding saturation magnetization strengths were 0.8, 7.2 and 15.2 emu/g, increasing with the increase of FeCl3 loadings. This could be ascribed to the growth in size of magnetic nanoparticles with increased FeCl3 loadings. The values of the saturation magnetization strengths were much lower than that of the bulk Fe3O4 (80.7 emu/g) or γ-Fe2O3 (83 emu/g), mainly due to the much smaller particle size and the non-magnetic or weak magnetic interfaces with carbon matrix.The magnetic separability of the magnetic Fe-containing carbon materials was tested in a water solution (Figure b). Upon placement of a magnet near the glass bottle, the powder Fe-containing carbon samples were quickly attracted to the side of the bottle within a few seconds. Therefore, this provided an easy and effective way to separate the mesoporous carbon materials from the solution, which facilitated the materials to be used as magnetic targeting and separation. In addition, the materials could be well redispersed by shaking or ultrasonic vibration.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights► A simple route has been developed to synthesize magnetic Fe-containing mesoporous carbon without using a solvent. ► The materials exhibited superparamagnetic characteristics desirable for their application to separation and targeted drug delivery. ► The effect of magnetic carbon structure on ibuprofen release behavior was studied for the first time.