Preparation and application performance of graft-quaternization double modified chitosan electrospun antibacterial nanofibers

Abstract

Inexpensive, biodegradable and antibacterial nanofibers were developed through graft-quaternization double modification of chitosan (CS) as a potential substitute for those from petroleum products. Chitin is available in large quantities at low price from fishery by-products, such as crab and prawn shells. However, native chitin and its derivative - CS have poor solubility in common spinning solvents, are difficult to be used as regenerated fibers, exhibit mediocre antibacterial property, and have limited medical application as functional fiber. In this research, CS-g-polydimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (PDMAEMA) and its quaternized product were prepared successively. Various nanofiber membranes were produced by electrospinning using the modified CS/PVA acetic acid blend spinning solutions. Effects of grafting ratio (GR) of DMAEMA and degree of quaternization (DQ) on major application performance of the blend nanofiber membranes, e.g. fiber fineness, tensile property, moisture-penetrability, and inhibition of E.coli and S.aureus, were evaluated systematically. When the GR and the DQ were 21.5% and 12.3% respectively, the quaternized CS-g-PDMAEMA/PVA blend nanofiber membrane possessed satisfied fiber fineness and smoothness, high tensile property and moisture-penetrability. In addition, the nanofiber thus produced had higher inhibition function to S.aureus than many commonly used antibacterial fibrous membranes.