Physical capture and release of drug molecules by clays: X-ray and neutron studies.

The primary objective of the project is to understand how clays can capture and release drug molecules, and how this is related to the capture and release of for example cations, H2O or CO2 by the same clays. It is also very important for the project to develop user friendly portable sample environments/cells that easily can be utilized at synhrotron or neutron facilities for such studies. The same sample environments are used for studies other types of molecule-clay interactions (H2O, CO2, ions etc). Sample cell prototype has been developed and is functioning at NTNU. The project started September 1 2013, and was completed in 2017, with activities that continues beyongd the project. The project has performed several synkrotron X-ray (XRD) experiments, at MaxIVLab (Sweden), SNBL- ESRF (France) and mostly at LNLS (Brazil), and several QUENS neutron experiments worldwide in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen. One PhD candidate financed by the project Everton dos Santos, defended his thesis in October 2+17, with double degree from NTNU and Univ. Copenhagen.

The project is a fundamental study of how clays can capture and release drug molecules, and how this is related to the capture and release of for example H2O, CO2 by the same clays. The H2O case is well documented in the literature, although not completel y understood, and at the same time very little is known about mechanisms for capture and release of molecules such as CO2 and drugs by clays. Among the most important methods to be utilized in this context are (synchrotron) X-ray and neutron methods, and in order to use those methods, custom made sample environments need to be designed, constructed and brought to the appropriate facilities (home-labs, synchrotron sources, research reactors) for experiments. The method development of the present project th us involves designing and building such a user-friendly and portable sample environments that can be used also by other and future researchers. Student training and integrated national and international expert collaborations (In particular Nordic: Norway, Denmark, Sweden) are at the core of the project.