PVA/Chitosan Composite Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes for Wound Dressing and Antibacterial Efficacy

Abstract

A Research has been carried out on the manufacture and characterization of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)/Chitosan composite nanofiber membranes using electrospinning technique which addressed for wound dressing and antibacterial efficacy. The electrospun composite nanofiber membranes were made with various volume ratios of PVA:Chitosan, namely 1:9, 2:8, and 3:7, which were named P9K1, P8K2, and P7K3 respectively. The electrospinning was performed at a voltage of 10 kV, the distance between the nozzle tip to the collector was 10 cm, a flow rate of 1 µl/h, at room temperature, a relative humidity (RH) of around 63%, and the spinning time was 3 h. Their physical and chemical were characterized by FTIR, SEM, DMA (dynamic analytical analysis), and antibacterial activity. These characterization results indicated that adding chitosan greatly affects the quality of the nanofiber membranes formed and their potential applications. The addition of chitosan produced nanofiber membranes with a larger diameter, shorter fibers, and more beads and droplets. The functional groups in the nanofiber membranes experienced a wavenumber shifting and increased transmittance which was relatively high compared to pure PVA nanofiber membrane (P10K0). Only the P8K2 met the standard for medical materials, with UTS and PTP of 2.73 MPa and 19.03% respectively. Also, it had antibacterial efficacy against E.coli and S. aureus of 16.90% and 8.87% respectively.