Antimicrobial properties of hydrated cellulose membranes with silver nanoparticles.

Microbial cellulose membranes have attracted a great deal of attention as novel wound-dressing materials, especially for the healing of skin burns and chronic wounds, because of their high water holding capacity and biocompatibility. However, the high humidity around the wound sometimes allows the growth of bacteria, as well as the regeneration of the tissue. In this study, silver nanoparticles were incorporated into the cellulose membranes via a chemical reduction method using a silver salt, silver nitrate (AgNO(3)) and a reducing agent, sodium borohydride (NaBH(4)). The silver nanoparticles were evenly adsorbed on the overall surface of the cellulose nanofibrils without any local aggregation and had a spherical shape with uniform size (8+/-2 nm) which allowed them to show antimicrobial properties. The interaction between the oxygen in cellulose and silver nanoparticles resulted in the stable adsorption of the silver nanoparticles on cellulose nanofibrils. The cellulose membrane with silver nanoparticles exhibited an antimicrobial activity of more than 99.99% against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, so that it could be used as an antimicrobial wound-dressing material for chronic wounds and burns.

Silver nanoparticles incorporated electrospun silk fibers.

We present a simple and mass-producible method of incorporating silver nanoparticles on the surface of electrospun silk non-woven membranes for the fabrication of antimicrobial wound dressings. Nanofibrous silk membranes with fiber diameters of 460 +/- 40 nm were electrospun from an aqueous Bombyx mori fibroin solution. The electrospun membranes incorporating silver nanoparticles were prepared by dipping the membranes in aqueous silver nitrate (AgNO3) solution (0.5 or 1.0 wt%) followed by photoreduction. Field emission scanning and transmission electron microscopy showed that silver nanoparticles were generated on the electrospun silk fibroin nanofibers as well as inside them. The interaction between the silver nanoparticles and amide groups in the silk fibroin molecules was characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Microspherical poly(methyl methacrylate)/multiwalled carbon nanotube composites prepared via in situ dispersion polymerization.

In this study, microspherical poly(methyl methacrylate)/multi-walled carbon nanotube (PMMA/ MWCNT) composites were directly prepared by in situ dispersion polymerization using poly (N-vinylpyrrolidone) in methanol media. PMMA/MWCNT microspheres having a diameter of 2.6 approximately 3.9 microm and a molecular weight of 58,000 approximately 65,000 g/mol with a 15.7 approximately 19.5% coefficient of variation (Cv) were synthesized. The morphology of the synthesized composite was investigated using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The experimental results demonstrated that MWCNTs are well dispersed and embedded in the final PMMA/MWCNT microspheres. The prepared PMMA/MWCNT microspheres were investigated in terms of their capacity to serve as an electrorheological (ER) materials.