Antibacterial Properties of Polyurethane / Benzalkonium Chloride Nanofibers

The textile sector brings us different functional features besides our need for dressing. One of them is to give antibacterial properties to textile structures. Antibacterial property increases the quality of life by protecting people against bacterial attacks. It is possible to achieve antibacterial activity at different stages of textile production processes. One of these processes is the electrospinning method, which makes it possible to add antibacterial substances into a polymer containing solution to be processed to a nanofiber structure. In this study, nanofiber structures were obtained by electrospinning from polyurethane (PU)/benzalkonium chloride (BAC) solutions at different concentrations. Then, their morphological, mechanical and antibacterial characteristics were investigated. According to the results, the produced fiber membranes had nanometer size. The nanofiber surfaces were intensive and uniform when BAC concentration was 0.5% and 1.0%. But, the uniformity lost at the higher BAC concentrations. The thinnest fiber diameter of nanofibers was 423±80nm. The strongest (6,42MPa) nanofiber structure was observed when the electrospinning solution included 0.98% PU and 1% BAC. The antibacterial activities of the fabrics were tested against gram-negative ( E. coli and P. aeruginosa ) and gram-positive ( B. subtilis and S. aureus ) bacteria. The fabrics showed antibacterial activity with a dose dependent manner against all the tested bacteria by the order of B. subtilis  >  S. aureus  >  E. coli  >  P. aeruginosa .