Interior synthesizing of ZnO nanoflakes inside nylon-6 electrospun nanofibers

Abstract

Doping of the polymeric electrospun nanofibers by metal oxides nanoparticles is usually performed by electrospinning of a colloidal solution containing the metal oxide nanoparticles. Besides the economical aspects, electrospinning of colloids is not efficient compared with spinning of sol-gels, moreover well attachment of the solid nanoparticles is not guaranteed. In this study, reduction of zinc acetate could be performed inside the nylon-6 electrospun nanofibers; so polymeric nanofibers embedding ZnO nanoflakes were obtained. Typically, zinc acetate/nylon-6 electrospun nanofibers were treated hydrothermally at 150°C for 1 h. Besides the utilized characterization techniques, PL study affirmed formation of ZnO. The produced nanofibers showed a good antibacterial activity which improves with increasing ZnO content. Overall, the present study opens new avenue to synthesize hybrid nanofibers by a facile procedure. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.