Abstract
Crosslinked chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibres were successfully prepared via electrospinning technique with heat mediated chemical crosslinking. The structure, morphology and mechanical properties of nanofibres were characterised by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and tensile tester respectively. The SEM images demonstrated that crosslinked nanofibres exhibited a smooth surface and regular morphology. With increasing PVA, swelling of nanofabric increased. The mechanical properties of the fibre mats, as determined in a static tensile test, improved with increasing PVA composition owing to strong interaction between chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) molecular resulted from intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The crosslinked chitosan/poly (vinyl alcohol) nanofibrous mats have potential use as artificial skin and other tissue scaffold materials.
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