Fabrication of Rechargeable Photoactive Silk Fibroin/Polyvinyl Alcohol Blend Nanofibrous Membranes for Killing Bacteria

Abstract

Antibacterial materials that prevent bacterial infections and mitigate bacterial virulence have attracted great scientific interest. In recent decades, bactericidal polymers have been presented as promising candidates to combat bacterial pathogens. However, the preparation of such materials has proven to be extremely challenging. Herein, photoactive silk fibroin/polyvinyl alcohol blended nanofibrous membranes grafted with 3,3’,4,4’-benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride (G-SF/PVA BNM) were fabricated by an electrospinning technique. The premise of this work is that the G-SF/PVA BNM can store photoactive activity under light irradiation and release reactive oxygen species for killing bacteria under dark conditions. The results showed that the resultant G-SF/PVA BNM exhibited the integrated properties of an ultrathin fiber diameter (298 nm), good mechanical properties, robust photoactive activity and photo-store capacity, and great photoinduced antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus (99.999% bacterial reduction with 120 min). The successful construction of blended nanofibrous membranes gives a new possibility to the design of highly efficient antibacterial materials for public health protection.

Progress in Research and Application of Modified Silk Fibroin Fibers

“…[42] Other groups first grafted SF with HEMA and HBA, and then the grafted SF was dissolved in trifluoroacetic acid to prepare the electrospun SF fiber membrane, which was finally treated with methanol solution to improve hydrophilicity, cell adhesion, and compatibility. [43] The fabrication of photoactive nanofiber membranes [13,84] with antibacterial properties is also a current popular research topic. For instance, Yi et al [84] prepared electrospun SF/CA composite nanofiber membrane chemically grafted with AQCA.…”

“…In conclusion, the modification of SF is necessary to improve its performance as well as be endowed with some above special functions. [7][8][9] The modified SF obtained by physical modification [10,11] and chemical modification [12,13] can effectively solve the above problems, and can be further spun into the modified SF fibers by dry spinning, wet spinning, electrospinning or microfluid spinning to be used in filtration, sensors, triboelectric nanogenerators, and tissue engineering, as shown in Figure 1.…”