ARTICLE IN PRESS JID: JTICE [m5G;March 11, 2015;13:19] Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers 000 (2015) 1–8 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtice Preparation and characterization of cetirizine intercalated layered double hydroxide and chitosan nanocomposites Kamellia Nejati a,∗ , Hassan Keypour b , Parvaneh Delir Kheirollahi Nezhad a , Zolfaghar Rezvani c , Karim Asadpour-Zeynali d a Department of Chemistry, Payam-e-Noor University, P.O. BOX 19395-3697 Tehran, Iran b Faculty of Chemistry, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran c Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran d Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 51666 16471, Iran article info Article history: Received 30 November 2014 Revised 9 February 2015 Accepted 25 February 2015 Available online xxx Keywords: Cetirizine Zn–Al layered double hydroxide Chitosan Intercalation Coprecipitation abstract The syntheses and characterization of Zn–Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) and chitosan nanocomposits are reported in the present paper. By increasing chitosan concentration, the crystallite growth is inhibited in both directions a and c. Afterward, cetirizine-intercalated LDH was synthesized. According to XRD patterns, increase in basal spacing indicated that cetirizine anions were intercalated into LDH. In-vitro drug release experiments have been investigated. On the basis of the release profiles, it was found that increase in chitosan concentration causes in decrease in drug release rate. Therefore, chitosan concentration can be adjusted to control the rate of the drug release. © 2015 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Layered compounds are a class of materials in which strong bond- ing, i.e., ionic or covalent, is limited to two dimensions, or one. In the third dimension, only weak Vander Waals interactions are present [1]. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs), also known as hydrotalcite- like compounds, are a class of host–guest layered solids with the gen- eral formula of [M 1–x 2+ M x 3+ (OH) 2 ] x + [A n– ] x/n ·yH 2 O. In this formula, M 2+ and M 3+ are di- and trivalent cations respectively, x is equal to the molar ratio of M 3+ /(M 2+ +M 3+ ) in the range 0.2–0.33, and A n– is an organic or inorganic anion [2–6]. These materials form succes- sive positively charged layers that are compensated by intercalation of hydrated negatively charged species and their interlayer distance depends on the size of the intercalated hydrated anion [7–10]. In recent years, LDHs have received considerable attention be- cause of their application as catalysts [11,12], ion exchangers [13,14], absorbents [15,16], ceramic precursors, and organic–inorganic nanocomposites [17,18]. Owing to the intercalation property of LDHs, many LDH compounds with intercalated beneficial organic anions, such as amino acid [19], pesticide [20], and drugs [21–24] have been ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 411 5412117; fax: +98 411 5412108. E-mail addresses: nejati_k@yahoo.com, k_nejati@pnu.ac.ir (K. Nejati), haskey1@yahoo.com (H. Keypour), parvanehdalir@yahoo.com (P.D.K. Nezhad), z_rezvani@yahoo.com (Z. Rezvani), k.zeynali@gmail.com (K. Asadpour-Zeynali). prepared. Because the release of drugs in drug-intercalated layered materials is potentially controllable, these new materials have great potential as delivery hosts in the pharmaceutical field. Cetirizine di- hydrochloride, chemically known as (±)[2-[2-[4-[(4-chlorophenyl)- phenylmethyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]acetic acid dihydrochloride, is a non-drowsy antihistamine (Scheme 1) that reduces the nat- ural chemical histamine in the body. Histamine is released from histamine-storing cells (mast cells) and then attaches to other cells that have receptors for histamine. The attachment of histamine to the receptors causes the cells to be “activated,” releasing other chemicals that produce effects associated with allergy, for example, sneezing [25–28]. Chitosan (CS) is a cationic polysaccharide that can be obtained by deacetylation of chitin, which is produced from shells of crus- taceans, insects, and some other sources [29–30]. Chitosan, an un- branched cationic biopolymer, has amounts of hydroxyl and amido groups, which can form strong coordinate bond with metal ions. The strong interaction between chitosan molecules and LDHs particles is supposed to occur during the growth of LDHs crystal, which can lead to special size and morphology [31,32]. In this paper, we report the synthesis and characterization of Zn–Al–NO 3 -LDH and chitosan nanocomposites and also intercalation of cetirizine into Zn–Al–NO 3 -LDH by the coprecipitation method in the presence of chitosan. Also release characteristics of cetirizine from intercalations have been investigated. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2015.02.035 1876-1070/© 2015 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: K. Nejati et al., Preparation and characterization of cetirizine intercalated layered double hydroxide and chitosan nanocomposites, Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2015.02.035