Preparation Of Composite Nanohbers Membranes With ZnO Nanoparticles And Study On The Antimicrobial Property

Electrospinning is one of the most versatile and promising processes for preparingcontinuous nanofibers due to its capability and feasibility in generating nanofibers atrelatively low cost. Polymer/metal composite nanofibers membranes prepared viaelectrospinning with the advantanges of composite materials and nanofibers, widen theapplications of composite materials.PVA nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning method. The effect of parameterssuch as concentration of PVA, voltage, inject-speed and receiving distance (C-SD) on themicrograph of composite fibers was studied. The result was as reference for preparingZnO/chitosan/PVA and ZnO-PVA composite nanofibers membranes. ZnO/chitosan/PVAwas prepared by incorporating ZnO nanoparticles in the composite polymers. ZnO-PVAwas prepared by combining in-situ synthesis and electrospining methods. Then themorphology and structure were characterized by SEM, TEM, FTIR and XRD.The antimicrobial activity of ZnO/chitosan/PVA and ZnO-PVA composite nanofibersmembranes were investigated, and cell adhesion was additionally discussed onin-situ-synthesized ZnO-PVA composite nanofibers membranes. The antimicrobial effectwas apparently improved after incorporating ZnO nanoparticles according to the MICvalue. The MIC values of chitosan/PVA against E.coli, S.aureus, C.albcan were120μg/ml,110μg/ml,190μg/ml, and those of ZnO/chitosan/PVA were100μg/ml,90μg/ml,160μg/mlrepectively. The broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity was proved on ZnO-PVAcompositenanofibers membranes. The antimicrobial efficiency against the four test strains wereranked as follows: S. aureus﹥C. albicans﹥E. coli﹥spores of A. niger. The antimicrobialactivity of ZnO NPs contributed the inhibition of cell adhesion apparently. Moreover,bacteria adhesion was related with the hydrophobicity of suface and cell secretions outsideof the cell membrane, which was determined by water contact angle (WCA) and SEMimages on morphology of adhesive cells. In addition, according to ROS detection of teatedcells of C. albicans and the photomicrographs of Gram-positive S. aureus andGram-negative E. coli, reactive oxygen species (ROS), internalization of nanoparticles andphysical damage on cell membrane were speculated to contribute to the antimicrobialactivity of ZnO NPs.