Quaternary ammonium salt–modified polyacrylonitrile/polycaprolactone electrospun nanofibers with enhanced antibacterial properties

Abstract

In this experiment, octadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (STAC), a cationic antibacterial agent, was designed to modify hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile (PAN) through tight electrostatic attraction. Then, the modified PAN was successfully electrospun with polycaprolactone (PCL) to obtain PCL/PAN-STAC nanofibrous membranes with enhanced mechanical properties. The modified PAN was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and elemental analysis. The morphological, mechanical and antibacterial properties of nanofibrous membranes were investigated. The blended nanofibrous membrane presented a uniform and stable structure with small pore size. Tensile tests indicated that the mechanical property of PCL/PAN-STAC nanofibrous membrane was obviously enhanced by blending. Disk diffusion tests showed that the inhibition zones of PCL/PAN-STAC against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were 7.56 ± 0.05 mm and 15.37 ± 0.34 mm, respectively. Shaking method indicated that the antibacterial activity against E. coli was as high as 96.20 ± 0.89% when the use of PCL/PAN-STAC reached 9 mg. Therefore, this antibacterial nanofibrous membrane is very favorable for applications such as protective filtration masks and wound dressing.

Dyeable PAN/CuS Nanofiber Membranes with Excellent Mechanical and Photothermal Conversion Properties via Electrospinning

“…In addition, it can also be seen that the tensile strength of PAN/CuS has been greatly improved as the content of CuS@QCS continues to increase. Compared to pure PAN nanofibers (3.43 Mpa), the tensile strength increased to 9.86 Mpa with the addition of 5 wt % CuS@QCS, which was significantly stronger than previous studies on the strength of PAN fibers. − This enhancement may be due to the good dispersion of CuS@QCS nanoparticles in polymer fibers that can effectively disperse the stress in the stretching process. However, adding excess CuS, such as 10 wt %, leads to a decreased strength (8.07 Mpa) due to the formation of aggregation, preventing the distribution of stress along the fibers.…”

Ag Nanoparticles-Decorated PVDF Nanofiber/Net Membranes with Enhanced Filtration and Antibacterial Efficiency for Personal Protective Equipment

“…This 10 to 20 fold decrease in pore diameter offers improved filtration performance through the mechanical capture effect on surface. 7 For instance, Zhou et al prepared three-dimensional polyacrylonitrile/polyimide (PAN/PI) composite submicrofibrous membranes through free-surface electrospinning for precise filtration of PM 0.26 pollutants. 8 The measured filtration efficiency reached 99.1% at a pressure drop of 222 Pa. To further increase the specific surface area of the fibers, a novel electrospun nanofiber/net membrane with ultralow diameter (10−20 nm) has been developed.…”

“…The pore diameters of the electrospun nanofibers range from 100 to 500 nm. This 10 to 20 fold decrease in pore diameter offers improved filtration performance through the mechanical capture effect on surface . For instance, Zhou et al prepared three-dimensional polyacrylonitrile/polyimide (PAN/PI) composite submicrofibrous membranes through free-surface electrospinning for precise filtration of PM 0.26 pollutants .…”

Measuring Physical Properties of Electrospun Nanofiber Mats for Different Biomedical Applications

“…The porosity is often mentioned as an important parameter for wound exudate transport and cell adhesion [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. While the porosity describes the amount of porous volume inside the nanofiber mat volume, the pore size distribution is also often taken into account [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 18 , 19 ]. Other morphological parameters are the nanofiber diameters [ 16 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ] and their orientation [ 25 , 26 , 27 ] as well as the surface roughness and nanofiber mat thickness [ 28 ].…”