Nanocharacterization and antibacterial performance of silver-containing electrospun nanofiber composite

摘要

In order to protect environment from infection to bacteria, novel antimicrobial agents have been developed for preventing disease in public hygiene and antifouling in biomedical industry. The use of silver as an antibacterial agent would be earliest attempts to improve human's hygiene [1]. It has long been known that silver and its compound have strong inhibitory effects on bacteria [2]. The nano-size materials improve not only their efficiencies but also its new advanced characteristics beyond bulk materials. Polymeric nanofibers (NFs) are promising for diverse applications, such as in drug delivery, tissue engineering and wound healing [3-5], due to their very high volumetric specific surface area, flexibility, and surface functionalities. Among many production technologies of NFs, electrospinning is a technology capable of producing NFs from materials of diverse origins, including polymers, with diameters in the nano- to micrometer range [6]. This study aims to prepare antibacterial NFs composited with silver particles and to evaluate the antibacterial performance against Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis; Gram-positive and virulence) and Escherichia coli (E. coli; Gram-negative and avirulence) using a modified broth dilution test. The influence of silver on the textural and surface properties of NF/Ag is investigated by using nitrogen adsorption isotherms, SEM, EDS, TEM measurements.