Poly (vinyl alcohol)/bentonite cryogels for potential wound dressings

JIMENA SOLEDAD GONZALEZ; VERA ALEJANDRA ALVAREZ

Riva del Garda

Simposio; Frontiers in Polymer Science; 2015

During the last decade hydrogels have been considered to be very helpful in their application as a wound dressing material. Avoiding wound infection and retaining an appropriate level of moisture around wound are major challenges in wound care management. Therefore, designing hydrogels with desired antibacterial performance and good water-maintaining ability is of particular significance to promote the development of wound dressing. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/Bentonite clay nanocomposite hydrogels were obtained by freezing-thawing technique (with several bentonite concentration) and characterized by means of morphological, physical, thermal, mechanical, barrier and antimicrobial properties. It was found that the addition of nanoclay to the hydrogel allows controlling the pore morphology of the samples. On the other hand, the transparency of the samples was maintained, the thermal stability was increased, the mechanical properties were improved and the water vapor transmission rate was in the range of wound dressing applications after bentonite incorporation inside the PVA hydrogel matrix. The evaluation of microbial penetration showed that the prepared hydrogels can be considered as a good barrier against different microorganisms. All obtained results indicate that the nanocomposite materials are promising to be used as wound dressing.