A low cost and eco-friendly membrane from polyvinyl alcohol, chitosan and honey: synthesis, characterization and antibacterial property

Abstract

A cheap and eco-friendly polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/chitosan (CS)/honey membrane was successfully developed using solvent casting technique. The prepared membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), contact angle, optical microscopy (OM) and universal testing machine (UTM) analysis. XRD results indicate that the membrane is crystalline, while FT-IR data confirm the successful incorporation of honey into the PVA/chitosan membrane. SEM analysis revealed that the surface morphology of the PVA/CS membrane is intact even after the incorporation of honey, which is corroborated by AFM and optical microscopic analysis. Contact angle measurement suggests that the hydrophilicity of the membrane increases with honey concentration. The membrane possesses good thermal and mechanical stability as indicated by TGA and UTM analysis. Disc diffusion method was employed to investigate the antibacterial activity of the membrane and the result shows that the membrane possesses good antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive bacteria) and Escherichia coli (Gram-negative bacteria). The antibacterial activity of the membrane could be tuned by honey concentration and 15 wt% honey loaded membrane displayed highest zone of inhibition (diameter: 8 mm (E. coli) and 14 mm (S. aureus). Our studies thus suggest that the PVA/chitosan/honey membrane could be a potential candidate for wound dressing applications.