STABILITY ANALYSIS OF IMMOBILIZED OZONATED VEGETABLE OIL ON SILICA NANOPARTICLES

Ozonated vegetable oils (OVO) have therapeutic potential due to their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing properties. However, their wettability and stability in aqueous solutions remain challenging, hampering their bioavailability. Silica nanoparticles offer a promising solution for enhancing bioavailability and controlled release of various hydrophobic drugs yet a similar approach has yet to be investigated with OVO. Thus, this study focuses on utilizing silica nanoparticles of ±100 nm as delivery vehicles to alter the wettability and stability of ozonated olive oil (OOO) in aqueous medium. The study includes preparing and characterizing non-porous and porous silica nanoparticles for OOO immobilization with the use of rhamnolipid biosurfactants as a linker agent. Both non-porous and porous silica nanoparticles, synthesized via a modified Stöber method, were compared in terms of structure and ability to immobilize OOO for wettability improvement. TEM and XRD revealed structural characteristics of the synthesized silica nanoparticles, confirming the amorphous solid and porous structure of the nanoparticles with an average size measured below 100 nm for both nanoparticles. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the successful immobilization of OOO on both silica nanoparticles showing the higher intensity of OOO on the non-porous silica nanoparticles (NPSiNPs) compared to porous silica nanoparticles (PSiNPs). DLS data shows that NPSiNPs had a mean size of 91.54 nm, while PSiNPs had a mean size of 201.5 nm with both having low PDI values (<0.5). Incorporating OOO onto silica nanoparticles, with rhamnolipid, significantly improved wettability and prolonged stability of OOO, maintaining over 80% of the OOO-silica nanocomposite in the water suspension after 3 days for NPSiNPs and over 50% for PSiNPs. The study highlights the synergistic effects of biosurfactants and silica nanoparticles in enhancing the stability and bioavailability of OVO in aquoeus medium, which could contribute to advancements in therapeutic applications.