Mechanism-Guided Microfluidic Fabrication of Hollow Cellulose Acetate-Alginate Nanocarrier for Ph-Responsive Curcumin Delivery Publisher



Soloki A ; Ahmadi M ; Aryanrad P ; Uroomiye S S ; Ghaffari F
Source: Chemical Papers Published:2026

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a continuous microfluidic strategy for the synthesis of pH-responsive hollow nanocarriers (NCs) based on cellulose acetate (CA) and alginate for curcumin delivery. An organic cellulose acetate–curcumin solution was introduced into contact with an aqueous sodium alginate stream, inducing rapid solvent–antisolvent exchange and nanoprecipitation, followed by interfacial assembly and subsequent Ca2+-mediated crosslinking of alginate. The resulting NCs were characterized using FT-IR, DLS, zeta potential analysis, FE-SEM, TEM, XRD, and DSC, and their drug-release behavior and cytotoxicity against MCF-7 breast cancer cells were evaluated. The NCs exhibited an average hydrodynamic diameter of 264.6 ± 118.7 nm, while TEM analysis revealed individual nanostructures of approximately 95 ± 19 nm. The optimized formulation achieved a curcumin loading capacity of 95.0 mg g− 1 and an encapsulation efficiency of 35.0%, and exhibited pH-dependent curcumin release, with enhanced release under acidic conditions. Curcumin-loaded NCs demonstrated concentration-dependent cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells, with an IC50 of 12.29 µg mL− 1, whereas the drug-free NCs showed limited cytotoxicity under the tested conditions. Overall, the developed continuous microfluidic platform integrates nanoprecipitation, interfacial assembly, and ionic crosslinking to produce pH-responsive curcumin-loaded NCs and provides a promising basis for further optimization of continuous nanocarrier synthesis for cancer drug-delivery applications. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences 2026.