Fabrication and characterization of polymeric nano/micro fibers containing silver nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pre-prepared nano/micro fibers were treated by sodium hydroxide (NaOH) aqueous solution and then AgNPs were loaded on them through the soaking process. In total, eight samples were created. Then they were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy diffraction (EDS) spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Disk diffusion and colony counting tests were also performed. Samples containing AgNPs had growth inhibition zones with diameters between 19 and 26 mm while control samples had no inhibition zone. PET microfibers containing AgNPs had a larger inhibition zone on Staphylococcus aureus compared to other samples. The innovation of this research is the placement of AgNPs on the hydrophilic PET micro/nano fibers.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Antibacterial
• composite
• micro/nano fibers
• polyethylene terephthalate
• silver nanoparticles

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Chito Thech Co. and Dr. Soheila Kordestani for preparing AgNPs Colloidal solution. We would also like to thank Mr. Saeed Jafari for his assistance in this research.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Table 1. Zone of inhibition diameter of PET nano/microfibers loaded with AgNps (stabilized with PVP) against E. coli and S. aureus after 24–48 h.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Amirkabir University of Technology.