A novel preparation for a PVA/l-histidine/AgNPs membrane and its antibacterial property

Abstract

In this paper, we have prepared an antibacterial material of PVA/L-histidine (L-H)/Ag fibers by electrospinning in a double nozzle for the first time. The composite fibers were crosslinked by the mixture of glutaraldehyde and hydrogen chloride gas. After that, the fibers were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and FT-IR spectra. The results indicated the size of silver particles distributed on the fiber was in the nanoscale below 10 nm, and OH groups have significantly decreased but the CO groups increased after crosslinking treatment by the gas phase. Simultaneously, the mechanical property for the membrane also greatly improved and the maximum strain and toughness reached 225.01% and 11.31 J g⁻¹ respectively. Lastly, in order to investigate the antibacterial property of the membrane, we chose E. coli and Staphylococcus as inhibition targets, which showed the excellent antibacterial property for blocking the growth and destroying the structure of the bacteria.