Design, manufacturing and functionality testing of a green electrospun nanocomposite membrane for mechanical and antibacterial characteristics

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) integrated nanocomposite fibrous membrane of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) was designed and synthesized following a solution-specific electrospinning method. GO was investigated for its potential for mechanical and antibacterial properties’ enhancement in the TPU-focused membrane design and development. Concurrently, CNC was integrated with the combination to investigate its hydrophilicity effect in the three-constituent membrane. The membranes were deposited with average fiber diameters ranging from 142.50 nm to 164.60 nm. Testing and characterization of the membranes were found to indicate the following: 1) neither the presence of GO nor CNC nor combination of CNC and GO significantly affected the tensile properties; 2) dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed that GO and CNC were able to increase the glass transition temperature of the TPU with the strongest response resulting from the use of both nanomaterials; 3) water contact angle measurements following a Sessile drop methodology indicated that the presence of GO had little effect on the initial contact angle, CNC showed a slightly more hydrophobic initial behavior, and CNC with GO displayed a more hydrophilic initial behavior; 4) antibacterial testing showed that neither presence of GO nor CNC improved the antibacterial behavior of the TPU membranes.