Next generation wound care technology capable of diagnosing wound parameters, promoting healthy cell growth and reducing pathogenic infections noninvasively would provide patients with an improved standard of care and an accelerated wound repair mechanism. Temperature is one of the indicating biomarkers specific to chronic wounds. This work reports a hybrid, multifunctional optical material platform -nanodiamond-silk membranes as bioinspired dressings capable of temperature sensing and wound healing. The hybrid structure was fabricated through electrospinning and formed 3D sub-micron fibrous membranes with high porosity. The silk fibres are capable of compensating for the lack of extracellular matrix at the wound site, supporting the wound healing process. The negatively charged nitrogen vacancy (NV -) color centres in nanodiamonds (NDs) exhibit optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) properties and act as fluorescent nanoscale thermometers, capable of sensing temperature variations associated to the presence of infection or inflammation in a wound, without physically removing the dressing. Our results show that the presence of NDs in the hybrid ND-silk membranes improve the thermal stability of silk fibres. The NVcolor centres in NDs embedded in silk fibres exhibit well-retained fluorescent and ODMR properties. Using the NVcentres as fluorescent nanoscale thermometers, we achieved temperature sensing at a range of temperatures, including the biologically relevant temperature window, on cellcultured ND-silk membranes. An enhancement in the temperature sensitivity of the NVcentres was observed for the hybrid materials. The hybrid membranes were further tested in vivo in a murine wound healing model and demonstrated biocompatibility and equivalent wound closure rates as the control wounds. Additionally, the hybrid ND-silk membranes showed selective antifouling and biocidal propensity toward Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, while no effect was observed on Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus.

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Multiple jet was successfully generated from a convex needle spinneret based on a conventional electrospinning setup. A convex channel was created in the front part of the needle to generate a limited free surface in the electrospinning process. A high flow rate was implemented with more than one polymer jet being produced, resulting in the production rate 2–3 times higher than conventional electrospinning. Finer nanofibers were produced from the convex needle when the applied voltage was 19 kV. The electric field intensity distribution of this spinneret was analyzed and compared with conventional needle spinneret by Comsol Multiphysics modeling. The research work has demonstrated that scaling up the production rate of nanofibers from needle‐based free surface electrospinning is possible. It will benefit further development of electrospinning with enhanced throughput and more precise controlling. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 48014.