Solubilization of active ingredients of different polarity in Pluronic® micellar solutions - Correlations between solubilizate polarity and solubilization site.

The solubilization of two pharmaceutically active ingredients (AI) with significantly different water solubility, namely carbamazepine and fenofibrate (solubility of 150ppm and 10ppm, respectively), has been investigated using a series of Pluronics® (Poloxamers) containing different ethylene oxide and propylene oxide (EO/PO) units in the molecule. The results show largely enhanced solubilization of fenofibrate by Pluronic® micelles that increases with the PPO chain length provided the temperature is above the critical micelle temperature (cmt). In contrast the more water-soluble carbamazepine only shows a moderate increase in solubilization upon addition of Pluronics®. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR experiments show that the solubilization of fenofibrate occurs in the core of the micelles, whereas carbamazepine shows no direct association with the micelles. These clearly different solubilization mechanisms for the two AIs were confirmed by Nuclear Overhauser Enhancement Spectroscopy (NOESY) experiments, which show that fenofibrate interacts only with the PPO core of the micelle, whereas carbamazepine interacts with both PPO and PEO similarly. Accordingly, the large enhancement of the solubilization of fenofibrate is related to the fact that it is solubilized within the PPO core of the Pluronic® micelles, while the much more moderate increase of carbamazepine solubility is attributed to the change of solvent quality due to the presence of the amphiphilic copolymer and the interaction with the EO and PO units in solution.

Critical micelle concentration values for different surfactants measured with solid-phase microextraction fibers.

The amphiphilic nature of surfactants drives the formation of micelles at the critical micelle concentration (CMC). Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers were used in the present study to measure CMC values of 12 nonionic, anionic, cationic, and zwitterionic surfactants. The SPME-derived CMC values were compared to values determined using a traditional surface tension method. At the CMC of a surfactant, a break in the relationship between the concentration in SPME fibers and the concentration in water is observed. The CMC values determined with SPME fibers deviated by less than a factor of 3 from values determined with a surface tension method for 7 out of 12 compounds. In addition, the fiber-water sorption isotherms gave information about the sorption mechanism to polyacrylate-coated SPME fibers. A limitation of the SPME method is that CMCs for very hydrophobic cationic surfactants cannot be determined when the cation exchange capacity of the SPME fibers is lower than the CMC value. The advantage of the SPME method over other methods is that CMC values of individual compounds in a mixture can be determined with this method. However, CMC values may be affected by the presence of compounds with other chain lengths in the mixture because of possible mixed micelle formation. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2173-2181. © 2016 SETAC.