Environmentally friendly approach electrospinning of polyelectrolytes from aqueous polymer solutions

Abstract

Polyelectrolytes have been studied in a variety of industrial applications in paints, paper coatings, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals as well as in research areas including drug delivery, antimicrobial agents, chemical and biological protective clothing, or biomimetic actuators. We have investigated the electrospinning of aqueous polymer solutions to generate nanofibres of environmentally friendly conditions. As polyelectrolytes, Polyvinyl alcohol, Polyvinyl amine and wool keratins were used. Due to the sensitivity of the resulting nanofibres towards aqueous conditions, the fibres were stabilized by physical and chemical corsslinking. To impart antimicrobial acitivity nanosilver was incorporated on example of PVA-nanofibres.