electrospun nitrocellulose and composite nanofibers

Abstract

Electrospinning was applied to nitrocellulose (NC) solutions  in DMF, DMSO  and  Ethyl  methyl  keton  to  obtain  NC  nanofibers. Electrospraying  process  was  observed  when  DMF  was  used  as solvent.  In  comparison  to NC/DMF, NC/DMSO  solution  resulted  in the  formation  of  a  coating  film  as  indicate  by  SEM.  Two  different electrospun  nanofibers,  smooth  nanofibers  with  90  to  150  nm diameters  and  porous  nanofibers with  400  to  500  nm  diameter, was noticed  when  EMK  was  used.  Electrospun  explosive  composite nanofibers  were  also  successfully  prepared  from  NC  to  modify  the properties  of  NC  and  their  morphology  were  investigated  by  SEM. Explosive  materials  such  as  nitrotriazolone  (NTO),  its  sodium  salt, picric acid and nanosilver were used as  the second component of  the composites. A reduction in the diameters of the composite nanofibers involving  Na-  NTO  was  noticed  comparing  to  the  parent  NC nanofibers. The diameters of the other explosive composite nanofibers were  in  the  range  of  50-300  nm  indicating  no  significant  diameter change  for  NC  nanofibers  upon  the  addition  of  0.1  wt%  NTO  and picric acid. Composite nanofibers containing nanosilver particles were also prepared  and  their  antibacterial  activities were  tasted  against E. coli and S. aureus. These nanofibers successfully inhibited the growth of both bacteria.