Abstract:
The objective of this research was to prepare the electrospun fiber from polysaccharide gel (PG) extracted from durian hull. PG is a biopolymer with inherent anti-bacterial property, which could be a good candidate for wound dressing applications. This work was separated in 3 parts: electrospining of PG and conditioned PG solution, electrospining of PG and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) blend, and crosslinking of PG:PVA fibers. Preliminary study on anti-microbial property of obtained fiber was also carried out. Effect of polymer concentration, subsequent solution conditioning methods, i.e. surfactant addition, enhancement of PG degradation with hydrogen peroxide under microwave and thermal activation, and PG fractionation by centrifugal force, applied electric field and PG:PVA blending ratio were investigated. While, electrospinning of PG and conditioned PG solutions obtained no fibers, sub-microparticles with a size range of 400 nm to 900 nm were formed from conditioned PG solution spinning. The addition of PVA into PG solution enhanced spinnability of the blend solution resulting in the formation of electrospun fibers of various sizes depending on solution concentration, blend ratio and spinning condition. Smooth fibers with size range of 200 nm to 400 nm were obtained from the blend solution of PVA and fractioned PG. Increasing PVA proportion increased average size of obtained fibers. To improve water resistant of PG/PVA electrospun fiber, the different crosslinking agents were used including calcium chloride, maleic acid and 25 %wt glutaraldehyde vapor. The result showed the PG/PVA mat could be only effectively crosslinked by 25 %wt glutaraldehyde vapor at ambient for 2 hours. Efficiency of anti-bacteria both of S. aureus and E. coli was observed even using 5 %w/v of PG blend with 15 %w/v at ratio of PG:PVA at 50:50.