Preparation of Needleless Electrospinning Polyvinyl Alcohol/Water-Soluble Chitosan Nanofibrous Membranes: Antibacterial Property and Filter Efficiency

Ching-Wen Lou; Meng-Chen Lin; Chen-Hung Huang; Mei-Feng Lai; Bing-Chiuan Shiu; Jia-Horng Lin

doi:10.3390/polym14051054

Preparation of Needleless Electrospinning Polyvinyl Alcohol/Water-Soluble Chitosan Nanofibrous Membranes: Antibacterial Property and Filter Efficiency

Polymers (Basel). 2022 Mar 7;14(5):1054. doi: 10.3390/polym14051054.

Authors

Ching-Wen Lou^{1

2

3

4}, Meng-Chen Lin⁵, Chen-Hung Huang⁶, Mei-Feng Lai⁵, Bing-Chiuan Shiu⁷, Jia-Horng Lin^{2

5

7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Fujian Key Laboratory of Novel Functional Fibers and Materials, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
² Advanced Medical Care and Protection Technology Research Center, College of Textile and Clothing, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
³ Department of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, Asia University, Taichung City 413305, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung City 404333, Taiwan.
⁵ Laboratory of Fiber Application and Manufacturing, Department of Fiber and Composite Materials, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407102, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Aerospace and Systems Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung City 407102, Taiwan.
⁷ College of Material and Chemical Engineering, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
⁸ Advanced Medical Care and Protection Technology Research Center, Department of Fiber and Composite Materials, Feng Chia University, Taichung City 407102, Taiwan.
⁹ School of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung City 404333, Taiwan.

Abstract

Electrospinning is an efficient method of producing nanofibers out of polymers that shows a great potential for the filtration territory. Featuring water-soluble chitosan (WS-CS), a low-pollution process and a self-made needleless machine, PVA/WS-CS nanofibrous membranes were prepared and evaluated for nanofiber diameter, bacteriostatic property, filtration efficiency, pressure drop, and quality factor. Test results indicate that the minimal fiber diameter was 216.58 ± 58.15 nm. Regardless of the WS-CS concentration, all of the PVA/WS-CS nanofibrous membranes attained a high porosity and a high water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), with a pore size of 12.06-22.48 nm. Moreover, the membranes also exhibit bacteriostatic efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus, an optimal quality factor of 0.0825 Pa^-1, and a filtration efficiency as high as 97.0%, that is 72.5% higher than that of common masks.

Keywords: antibacterial property; chitosan; filtration efficiency; nanofibers; polyvinyl alcohol.