Facile Fabrication of Sandwich Structural Membrane With a Hydrogel Nanofibrous Mat as Inner Layer for Wound Dressing Application

Abstract

A common problem existing in wound dressing is to integrate the properties of against water erosion while maintaining a high water-uptake capacity. To tackle this issue, we imbedded one layer of hydrogel nanofibrous mat into two hydrophobic nanofibrous mats, thereafter, the sandwich structural membrane (SSM) was obtained. Particularly, SSM is composed of three individual nanofibrous layers which were fabricated through sequential electrospinning technology, including two polyurethane/antibacterial agent layers, and one middle gelatin/rutin layer. The obtained SSM is characterized in terms of morphology, component, mechanical, and functional performance. In addition to the satisfactory antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and antioxidant property upon scavenging DPPH free radicals, the obtained SSM also shows a desirable thermally regulated water vapor transmission rate. More importantly, such SSM can be mechanically stable and keep its intact morphology without appearance damage while showing a high water-absorption ratio. Therefore, the prepared sandwich structural membrane with hydrogel nanofibrous mat as inner layer can be expected as a novel wound dressing.

Keywords: antibacterial activity; antioxidant activity; hydrogel nanofibrous mat; sandwich structure; wound dressing application.

Figure 1

Surface images and fibers diameter distribution (ImageJ) of GE-R (A,C), and PU-Ca (B,D), and cross-sectional images of SSM141 (E), and SSM222 (F).

Figure 2

FT-IR spectrum of each component of SSM.

Figure 3

Thermal decomposition (A) and DTG (B) curves of different electrospun membranes.

Figure 4

Stress-strain curves of different membranes.

Figure 5

Water contact angle images of different membranes PU-Ca (A) and GE-R (B).

Figure 6

WAR of different electrospun membranes under ambient condition.

Figure 7

WVTR curves by the function of humidity under constant temperature 21°C (A) and constant temperature 37°C (B).

Figure 8

Antioxidant performance of different electrospun membranes. (A) Scavenging rate-time curve of different membranes; (B) Scavenging rate histogram of different membranes.

Figure 9

Antibacterial activity investigation results. SSM141against S. aureus (A) and E. coli (D). SSM222 against S. aureus (B) and E. coli (E), and pristine PU against S. aureus (C) and E. coli (F) as the comparisons.