Morphological and Wettability Evaluation of Electrospun Polivinyl Alcohol (PVA) Nanofiber Membrane for Wound Dressing Application

Abstract

Many researches have focused on producing electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) aiming to speed up physiological events of wound healing. However, it is still a challenge to fabricate functional ENMs using electrospinning technique, taken into account various factors that may affect the fibers diameter such as polymer solution properties, electrospinning parameters and ambient conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the combined electrospinning process parameters and characterize the morphology and wettability of the electrospun polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofiber membranes produced. Process parameters that were optimized include applied voltage, flow rate, and distance to collector. The fabrication of PVA nanofiber membranes was done at 21 kV, 2 mL/h and 10 cm after optimization. Surface morphology and fiber diameter were analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The water contact angle was used to analyze wettability. Electrospun PVA nanofiber membranes showed continuous random fiber, no bead defect, hydrophilic surface and average fiber diameters between 265 ± 86 nm and 281 ± 90 nm. Smaller fiber diameter between 200-700 nm can enhance cell migration. It is suggested from this study that the optimized parameters have successfully produced electrospun PVA nanofiber membranes with suitable fiber diameter for cell migration and can direct cell response, thus can be applied as a wound dressing material.