Temperature-controlled electrospinning of EVOH nanofibre mats encapsulated with Ag, CuO, and ZnO particles for skin wound dressing

Abstract

Aiming to the treatment of skin burns, a new wound dressing, nanofiber mats with metal or metal oxide nanoparticles (Ag, CuO and ZnO ) , was fabricated by the electrospinning technique. During the therapeutic process, the antibacterial ability and bio-compatibility of a new dressing material are of major concerns. To expound the characteristics of EVOH nanofiber mats encapsulated with the metal or metal oxide nanoparticles, notated as Ag-EVOH, CuO-EVOH and ZnO-EVOH, respectively, for possible use as the new wound dressing materials, we have investigated the suitable processing parameters to fabricate these materials, such as the voltage, the tip-to-collector distance, the concentration of the solution, and the effect of environmental temperature. The antibacterial abilities and the bio-compatibilities of Ag-EVOH, CuO-EVOH and ZnO-EVOH were then tested and quantified. The outcomes show that the most suitable temperature for fabrication of the materials is 40℃(±3℃). Antibacterial experimental results indicate that 0.08g/ml of metal/metallic oxide shows the highest antibacterial ability on Staphylococcus aureus. And the largest diameters of bacteriastatic loops of the three kinds of nanofiber mats, ie., Ag-EVOH, CuO-EVOH and ZnO-EVOH, are 5.89mm, 5.21mm and 4.12mm, respectively. Fially, the cell proliferation of the three nanofiber mats show a similar growth trend.