DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIBACTERIAL ELECTROSPUN POLY(VINYL ALCOHOL) NANOFIBERS CONTAINING ZINC NITRATE

RIBBA, LAURA; CIMADORO, JONATHAN; GUZ, LUCAS; CANDAL, ROBERTO; GOYANES, SILVIA

Capital Federal

Workshop; II Workshop Polímeros Biodegradables y Biocompuestos III Workshop of the project BIOPURFIL, Bio-based Polyurethane Composites with Natural Fillers; 2015

The important damage caused by pathogenic microorganisms? infection has led to an increasing interest in the development of antibacterial polymeric systems for many in applications. In particular, among the biomedical uses, antibacterial polymeric fibrous dressings for wound healing function have been developed by the electrospinning technique, as they provide a physical barrier to a wound, but are permeable to moisture and oxygen. In order to grant antibacterial properties to a polymer, an antibacterial agent can be added. Zinc nitrate is one of the most frequently reported inorganic antibacterial agents. [1]Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is one of the commercially available biodegradable and biocompatible synthetic polymers. In order to avoid PVA dissolution in water different methods have been performed. In particular the incorporation of citric acid (CA) and a thermal treatment have shown excellent results. [2]In this work, we describe the preparation and antibacterial characterization of a biodegradable polymeric composite on the basis of electrospun fibres of PVA and zinc nitrate.MATERIALS AND METHODSMowiol 10-98 PVA, zinc nitrate and CA were obtained from Sigma Aldrich. Four different polymer solutions were prepared to electrospun: PVA in water 12% w/w (PVA), PVA in water 12% w/w with 10 % of citric acid respect to PVA (PVA-CA), PVA in water 12% w/w with 10 % of zinc nitrate respect to PVA (PVA-Zn), and PVA in water 12% w/w with 10 % of citric and 10 % of zinc nitrate acid respect to PVA (PVA-CA-Zn).The chosen experimental variables for the electrospinning process were: a needle-collectordistance of 20 cm, a voltage of 35 KV and an injection rate of 0.5 ml/h. Once the membranes were obtained they were exposed to 190 °C for 10 minutes to stimulate the CA-PVA reaction.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONAntibacterial tests were carried out on Gram negative bacteria Escherichia coli, using Kirby?Bauer disk diffusion method. PVA and PVA-Zn meshes were deposited on a substrate, as because of their solubility in water they trend to dissolve when they get in contact with the agar.According to the obtained results, no detectable inhibition zones were seen for the PVA, PVA-CA or PVA-Zn meshes. Conversely, a significant zone was observed for the PVA-CA-Zn mesh.In conclusion, cross-linked PVA membranes containing zinc nitrate have been prepared by electrospinning method. The sample exhibited antibacterial activity against E. coli. Our simple method provides a new approach to fabricate a water insoluble PVA antibacterial membrane with potential application in several fields.REFERENCES[1] Galya T, Sedlarik V, Kuritka I, Sedlarikova J, Saha P, Int. J. Polym. Anal. Charact. 13 (2008) 241?253.[2] Stone S A, Gosavi P, Athauda T J, Ozer R R, Mater. Lett. 112 (2013) 32?35