Nano-silver stabilized Pickering emulsions and their antimicrobial electrospun fibrous matrices. (11th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Samanta, Archana; Takkar, Sonam; Kulshreshtha, Ritu; Nandan, Bhanu; Srivastava, Rajiv K
• Is Part Of: Biomedical physics & engineering express. Volume 3:Number 3(2017)
• Publication Date: 2017-05-11
• Subjects: nanosilver -- polycaprolactone -- emulsion -- electrospinning -- antimicrobial -- fibrous scaffold; Medical physics -- Periodicals; Biophysics -- Periodicals; Biomedical engineering -- Periodicals; Medical sciences -- Periodicals; 610.153
• DOI: 10.1088/2057-1976/aa6c32
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2057-1976

Abstract

Abstract: Efficacy of nano-silver for its antimicrobial properties is proven and a significant academic and industrial research has been devoted on use of nano-silver in applications including filtration, textiles, biomedical and others. In present work, in situ synthesized nano-silver was used as a Pickering stabilizer for water-in-oil emulsion of poly( ε -caprolactone) (PCL) which upon electrospinning led to formation of nano-silver containing fibrous matrix suitable as wound dressing. Nano-silver was synthetized in high yield using silver nitrate (AgNO3 ) as precursor and two different reductants viz. sodium borohydride (NaBH4 ) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in aqueous media which formed the dispersed phase of the emulsion. PCL solution in toluene comprised the continuous phase. Concentration of AgNO3 and PCL was varied to study the effect on emulsion's stability. Nano-silver formed using PEO as reducing agent led to formation of highly stable emulsions in comparison to those formed using NaBH4 . Emulsions thus produced were reproducibly electrospun to generate uniform fibrous matrices of desired fiber fineness. Nano-silver containing PCL matrices were assessed for their role as wound dressing by examining the antimicrobial properties.