Superhydrophilic Polystyrene Nanofiber Materials Generating O₂(¹Δ_g): Postprocessing Surface Modifications toward Efficient Antibacterial Effect

Abstract

The surfaces of electrospun polystyrene (PS) nanofiber materials with encapsulated 1% w/w 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) photosensitizer were modified through sulfonation, radio frequency (RF) oxygen plasma treatment, and polydopamine coating. The nanofiber materials exhibited efficient photogeneration of singlet oxygen. The postprocessing modifications strongly increased the wettability of the pristine hydrophobic PS nanofibers without causing damage to the nanofibers, leakage of the photosensitizer, or any substantial change in the oxygen permeability of the inner bulk of the polymer nanofiber. The increase in the surface wettability yielded a significant increase in the photo-oxidation of external polar substrates and in the antibacterial activity of the nanofibers in aqueous surroundings. The results reveal the crucial role played by surface hydrophilicity/wettability in achieving the efficient photo-oxidation of a chemical substrate/biological target at the surface of a material generating O2((1)Δg) with a short diffusion length.

Enhanced catalytic degradation of 4-NP using a superhydrophilic PVDF membrane decorated with Au nanoparticles

“…The PDA coating layer acts as a spacer for the post-modication. 38,39 Besides, surface crosslinked PVP segments on the membrane can also form hydrogen bonds with dopamine to promote the adsorption of PDA, which is in accordance with previous studies. The varied morphological evolutions of the HM, MSiM and MSoM with different deposition times in dopamine solution for 2 h, 8 h and 24 h are shown in Fig.…”

Superlyophilic Interfaces and Their Applications

“…For instance, artificial fibers that resemble biological counterparts of spider silk have been prepared either with nylon by dip-coating or with poly(methyl methacrylate) by electrospinning method. [111,112] Water can transport directionally along the as-prepared fibers just like biological spider silks. Furthermore, far beyond nature, the same group has constructed smart fibers on which the wettability could respond to external stimuli by introducing stimulus-responsive polymers.…”

Effects of quaternization on the morphological stability and antibacterial activity of electrospun poly(DMAEMA-co-AMA) nanofibers

“…Electrospun nanofibers with antibacterial activity have been generally fabricated by following strategies: 1) directly electrospinning antibacterial polymers into nanofibers [3], 2) blending antibacterial agent in a polymer solution and then electrospinning [4][5][6][9][10][11][12][13][14], 3) encapsulating the antibacterial agent in the core of the nanofibers through coaxial electrospinning [15][16][17], 4) modifying the nanofibers after electrospinning to convert a precursor to its antibacterial form, or attaching the antibacterial agent onto the surfaces of electrospun nanofibers [7,8,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…Various well-known antibacterial agents have been used in these strategies, which include antibiotics [15][16][17], silver nanoparticles [11][12][13][14], metal oxide nanoparticles [24], photosensitizers [18,19], and quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) [3,4,10,22].…”