Preparation of antibacterial PHBV/GO nanocomposite membranes via electrospinning

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxypentanoate) (PHBV)/graphene oxide (GO) composite membranes were electrospun with an aim at fabricating antibacterial nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering application. Randomly and aligned oriented PHBV/GO fibrous membrane were prepared by controlling the mixed solvent, GO concentration and process parameters, and their effect on the morphology and structure of the membranes was investigated. When 10 wt% GO nanosheets was incorporated into the composite spinning dope, PHBV/GO membrane presented a 18.7 MPa breaking strength and 5.51 × 102 MPa tensile modulus, much greater than 14.3 MPa and 1.76 × 102 MPa of PHBV membrane. Colonies forming units of E.coli and S.aureus reduced by 81.7% and 71.8% for randomly oriented PHBV/GO, and 84.2% and 73.4% for aligned oriented PHBV/GO when compared to PHBV membrane. The development of bacterial biofilm on PHBV/GO membrane reduced greatly when incorporating 5–10 wt% GO. The antibacterial PHBV/GO membranes with better mechanical properties showed great promise for further studies on bone tissue repair. [Display omitted]