Simple fabrication of polycaprolactone-co-lactide membrane with silver nanowires: Synthesis, characterization and cytotoxicity studies

Abstract

Our simple technique of polymer/metal-based material preparation produces very promising material, and we outline that this material can be suitable for the potential wound healing multilayered dressing. In our research we focused on these main issues: (1) the preparation of silver nanowire-like structures using gallic acid (GA); (2) direct silver nanowire-like structure crystallization of co-polymer L-lactide and epsilon-caprolactone (PLCL) electrospun fiber and (3) evaluation of the material cytotoxicity on the Vero cell line. Synthesized silver nanowire-like width varied from 30 to 100 nm and the hexagonal particles had sizes from 80 to 300 nm. The detected structures were crystalline cubic silver and were similarly synthesized during both batch synthesis and direct synthesis on the PLCL fibers. The amount of the silver spread within the fibrous membrane was approximately 1.1 wt. % in the sample, moreover, the silver incorporation had no influence on the polymer structure, which was confirmed by FTIR measurement. The cytotoxicity testing estimated that cell survival increased with decreased concentration of GA and silver in the PLCL matrix and the silver-based sample in 50 % MTT extraction concentration maintained required non-cytotoxic properties.