Biopolymers Blend for Microwave-Synthesized Carbon Dots and Iodine Entrapping for Potential Biomedical Bandages

Abstract

Polymer science and nanotechnology play a vital role in recent years especially in the health and medical fields. The current approach represents a recent investigation for exploiting biopolymers blend of carboxymethyl starch and carboxymethyl chitosan for successive clustering of nitrogen-decorated carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) with sequential entrapping of iodine (I₂@N-CQDs). A comparable overview is studied between the ingrowth of N-CQDs under the effect of sodium hydroxide (I₂@N-CQDs-S) versus formic acid (I₂@N-CQDs-F). The obtained I₂@N-CQDs were loaded within gauze matrix to prepare I₂@N-CQDs@Gauze with anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties. The data reveal that nucleation of N-CQDs under basic conditions (N-CQDs-S, 7.2 nm) is performed with smaller sized CQDs than that under acidic conditions (N-CQDs-F, 11.8 nm). After iodine entrapping, size average increased to be 17.9 and 27.4 nm for I₂@N-CQDs-S and I₂@N-CQDs-F, respectively. I₂@N-CQDs-S@Gauze showed higher anti-inflammation than I₂@N-CQDs-F@Gauze, while the estimated IC50 was 156.8 and 229.9 µL, respectively. For anti-microbial performance, I₂@N-CQDs-F@Gauze exhibited slightly higher results, and the microbial reduction was 78.2%, 76.1 & 83.0% against S. aureus, E. coli, and C. albicans, respectively. Hence, the prepared I₂@N-CQDs@Gauze could be promisingly applicable as bandage in wound healing for injuries treatment.