Crosslinked Electrospun Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) Nanofibers Coated By Antibacterial Copper Nanoparticles

Poly (vinyl alcohol) (pva) nanofibers were prepared via electrospinning ofconcentrated pva solutions. the nanofibers were crosslinked to enhance theirresistance against the moisture. the chemical crosslinking of the nanofibers wascarried out using glutaraldehyde as crosslinking agent in the presence of hydrochlorideacid. the chemical structure, water solubility, and morphology of the electrospun pvananofibers were characterized by fourier transform infrared (ftir)spectrometer,water durability test, and scanning electron microscope (sem),respectively. in addition, the crosslinked nanofibers were coated by coppernanoparticles (cnps) using electrospraying technique. for this purpose, colloidalcnps were synthesized through the chemical reduction of copper ions in the presenceofdifferent stabilizers, i.e. poly (vinyl alcohol) and ethylene glycol (eg), in an aqueousmedia. the effect of the stabilizer concentration (0.001 and 0.005 m) and reductiontemperature (25 and 70°c) were investigated on the cnp dispersion in the media usinguv-visible spectroscopy. furthermore, the dispersion of the cnps on the pvananofibers was studied by means of sem. the sem micrographs showed that thenanofiber scould properly imprison the cnps. successful the proposed approach wouldbe exploited to prepare polymer nanofibers incorporating metal nanoparticles whichmight have interesting properties such as antibacterial activity.