Synthesis and Characterization of Polystyrene with Embedded Silver Nanoparticle Nanofibers to Utilize as Antibacterial and Wound Healing Biomaterial

Abstract

Hiren, we aimed to obtain uniform nanofibers from polystyrene (PS) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) embedded PS Polystyrene solutions in N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent and safe reducing agent via electrospinning process. Different electrospinning parameters such as polystyrene concentration, flow rate, and electric field have been studied for obtaining uniform polystyrene nanofibers. Then silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were embedded into polystyrene nanofibers to obtain AgNPs-PS nanofibers composite as powerful cheap and nontoxic bioactive materials. PS nanofibers and AgNPs-PS nanofibers composite were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, AgNPs were characterized by UV-vis. Spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and EDX analysis. Results showed that PS nanofibers were obtained with concentrations ranges from 10-30 wt.% and the optimum value at 20 wt. % in DMF. Also, AgNPs-PS nanofibers composite have been produced from its solutions by using DMF at the optimum value. The prepared AgNPs have 21-40 nm particle size and semi-spherical shape. In addition, the antibacterial activity of AgNPs-PS nanofibers towards both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria have been increased. Therefore, this nanocomposite can be used as a powerful bioactive material in biomedical fields.