Abstract
The chemistry of the charge transfer (CT) or proton transfer (PT) interactions of drugs has received considerable attention in the chemistry, biology, pharmacology and medicine. The current study focused on the drug theophylline (TP) at the nanoscale. CT or PT nanoparticles of the drug TP with various organic acceptors were obtained by the slow evaporation of methanol–dichloromethane (1:1) as the binary solvent system. The structure and morphology of the nanoparticles were characterized by physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques, such as UV–visible, IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopies; XRD; SEM; TEM; and elemental and thermal analyses. Notably, it has been found that the complexation of TP with an organic acceptor leads to highly organized nanoparticles with a main diameter in the range of 6–13nm.
Complexation of the drug theophylline with picric acid leads to an extraordinary morphology involving a highly organized nanoscale structure. The SEM and TEM micrographs show a saw-like morphology with a diameter of ~10nm. [Display omitted]
•Complexes with nanosized grains of the drug theophylline were obtained.•The chemical structure was confirmed by IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopies.•The microstructures of the complexes were observed by XRD, SEM and TEM.•One of the complexes exhibited a remarkable morphology.