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Updated: Jun 5, 2026
Fabricating Superhydrophobic Polymeric Materials for Biomedical Applications
Published on: August 28, 2015
Polymer/bacteria composite nanofiber non-wovens by electrospinning of living bacteria protected by hydrogel
Marco Gensheimer1, Astrid Brandis-Heep, Seema Agarwal
1Philipps-Universität Marburg, Department of Chemistry and Scientific Center of Materials Science, Hans-Meerwein-Str., D-35032 Marburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Physically crosslinked PVA-hydrogel microparticles are utilized for encapsulation of E. coli and M. luteus. The bacteria survive dry storage or treatment with bacteria-hostile organic solvents significantly better than unprotected bacteria as proven by culture-test experiments. The bacteria-protecting PVA microparticles are available for standard polymer-solution-processing techniques, as exemplarily shown by co-electrospinning of living bacteria encapsulated in dry PVA-hydrogel microparticles together with PVB-, PLLA-, and PCL-form organic solvents.
