U.S.-Egypt Cooperative Research: Improving Healing Performance of Wound Dressings through Formation of High Surface Area Chitosan/Cellulose Structures From Electrospun Nanofibers

0709654SeyamDescription：该项目支持北卡罗来纳州罗利市北卡罗来纳州立大学纺织和服装技术系Abdelfartah Seyam博士的合作研究。合作的科学家是埃及开罗国家研究中心的艾哈迈德·瓦利博士。他们计划研究如何通过从电纺纳米纤维形成高比表面积的壳聚糖/纤维素结构来提高伤口敷料的愈合性能智能优点：合作者将进行基础研究，以开发和评估使用电纺纳米纤维的高可吸收、廉价的壳聚糖/纤维素结构。其主要目标是形成和评估伤口敷料的复合材料结构。这些结构主要由两个组成部分组成。第一种是基于纤维素的水凝胶材料，能够吸收至少10倍于其重量的伤口分泌液。通过与乙烯基单体接枝来提供亲水官能团，将形成水凝胶纤维结构。第二种是由壳聚糖/纤维素溶液静电纺丝形成的非织造布纳米纤维层。PI将使用不同的混合比例、电场、溶液浓度和加工速度，以壳聚糖/纤维素纳米纤维为原料，形成一系列极薄的非织造布，并研究这些因素对形成的结构(纤维直径和取向、表面积和孔径大小)的影响。将评估复合纤维和纳米纤维非织造布的纤维结构的愈合性能。在静态试验(AATCC方法100)和动态模式(ASTM E-2149-01)中评价该结构对各种细菌和酵母菌的接触杀灭性能。将监测细菌随时间减少的百分比(杀死的数量占总数的百分比)(修改后的ASTM E-2149-01)。这些测试评估形成的纤维结构的愈合性能/时间。愈合性能将与纳米纤维和水鳃层的结构参数相关，以设计满足特定需求的伤口敷料。更广泛的影响：这项研究的结果应该导致设计具有预定结构和愈合性能的伤口敷料，以满足特定需求。虽然这项研究的重点是伤口敷料，但从这类研究中获得的预期知识将有助于开发用于其他应用的廉价纤维，如医院床单、外科大衣和医用手套。NCSU的两名博士后科学家和一名研究生将通过该项目获得部分资助。该项目得到了美国-埃及联合基金计划的支持，该计划为两国的科学家和工程师提供资助，以开展这些合作活动。

0709654SeyamDescription: This project supports collaborative research by Dr. Abdelfattah Seyam, Department of Textile and Apparel Technology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. The collaborating scientist is Dr. Ahmad Waly, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt. They plan to study how to improve the healing performance of wound dressing through formation of high surface area chitosan/cellulose structures from electrospun nanofibers Intellectual Merit: The collaborators will conduct fundamental research to develop and evaluate highly absorbable inexpensive chitosan/cellulose based structures with high surface area using electrospun nanofibers. The main goal is to form and evaluate composite structures for wound dressings. The structures consist mainly of two components. The first is a cellulose based hydrogelled material capable of absorbing at least 10 times of its weight of wound discharge liquids. The hydrogel fibrous structures will be formed by grafting with a vinyl monomer to impart hydrophilic functional groups. The second is a nonwoven layer of nanofibers formed by electrospinning the nanofibers from chitosan/cellulose solutions. The PIs will form a range of extremely thin nonwovens from chitosan/cellulose nanofibers using different blend ratios, electric fields, solution concentrations, and process speeds and study the impact of these on the formed structures (fiber diameter and orientation, surface area, and pore size). The combined fibrous structures of hyrogelled and nanofibers nonwoven will be evaluated for healing performance. Contact kill performance of the structures against range of bacteria and yeast in static test (AATCC Method 100) and dynamic mode (ASTM E-2149-01) will be evaluated. The percent reduction of bacteria (number killed as a percent of total number) as a function of time will be monitored (Modified ASTM E-2149-01). These tests assess healing performance/time of the developed fibrous structures. The healing performance will be correlated to the structural parameters of the nanofibers and the hydrogilled layers, in order to design wound dressings to meet specific needs. Broader Impact: The results of this research should lead to design of wound dressings with predetermined structures and healing performance to fit specific needs. While the focus of this research is on wound dressing, the expected knowledge from such research will be helpful in developing inexpensive fibers for other applications such as hospital bed sheets, surgical gowns, and medical gloves. Two post-doctoral scientists and a graduate student from NCSU will be partially supported through this project. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.