Study of some rheological properties of niosomal dispersions of various concentrations based on PEG-12 dimethicone

O V Vecher, E I Diskaeva, I A Bazikov, K S Elbekyan and E N Diskaeva

Abstract

In recent decades, the creation of new pharmaceutical targeted drug delivery has become widespread. In this regard, various carriers of medicinal substances have been developed. It is worthy to note that niosomes are more prospective in comparison with other carrier, because they are not susceptible to oxidation and they have delayed clearance, thus providing high therapeutic performance. This study aims to investigate some rheological properties of niosomal dispersion and the analysed dependence of viscosity coefficient on volume concentration. The results demonstrated that for low concentrations of niosomal dispersions, the dynamic viscosity coefficient can be estimated using the Einstein's equation with the introduction of a correction factor, the value of which at an average diameter of 90–100 nm and a zeta potential of 49.5–54.5 mV is 0.04–0.05. It is wished that our work would be helpful to fully understand the structure of niosome aggregates, which are considered to play an important role in viscosity and are affected by both intermolecular and electrostatic forces. With increasing particle concentration and decreasing average distance between aggregates, the particles at the surface of different aggregates attract each other and a less compact aggregation structure is formed. The measured relationships between size, ζ-potential, and the relative viscosities of dispersions show that the relative viscosities decrease with decreasing absolute value of ζ-potential, which further reveals the effect of electrical repulsion forces on the structure of aggregates.