Antibacterial efficacy of poly(vinyl alcohol) composite nanofibers embedded with silver-anchored silica nanoparticles

Silver has been widely used as an effective antibacterial agent especially for treating burns and wounds. However, release of silver from materials often arouse side effects due to toxicity of silver towards mammalian cells. Argyria and argyrosis are well known problems of acute toxicity of silver towards human body. Immobilization of silver is an effective approach to reduce silver release. Herein, we present poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite nanofibers embedded with silver-anchored silica nanoparticles (SSNs) as a novel antibacterial material. Silver nanoparticles anchored on silica nanoparticles were prepared and incorporated into PVA nanofibers to fabricate silver-silica embedded PVA nanofibers (SSN-PVA) by electrospinning. Incorporation of SSNs into PVA was confirmed by TEM and SEM results revealed regular nanofibers whose diameter increased with successive addition of SSNs. The SSN-PVA nanofibers showed significant antibacterial efficacy against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Our research results demonstrated SSN-embedded polymeric nanofibers can open up a promising prospect for the prevention of bacterial infection in diverse biomedical fields including wound dressing.Contract grant sponsor: H.J.C. acknowledges the support from the Marine Biomaterials Research Center Grant from Marine Biotechnology Program funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, KoreaContract grant sponsor: S.-G.O. acknowledges the support from the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Korea; contract grant number: 2016R1A6A1A0301342