Preparation of composite alginate-based electrospun membranes loaded with ZnO nanoparticles

In the present work alginate-based nanofibrous membranes embedding zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were prepared via electrospinning technique. ZnO-NPs were synthesized by means of a "green" sol-gel method by using alginate itself as stabilizing agent and characterized through UV-vis spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and morphological analysis. Formulations containing sodium alginate, poly(ethylene oxide) and ZnO-NPs were rheologically studied to identify the most suitable ones to be electrospun; alginate molecular structure played an important role on the solution spinnability due to the polysaccharide capability to establish electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds with ZnO-NPs. An innovative washing-crosslinking protocol was developed to obtain stable products which composition was assessed using Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Morphological investigation combined with EDX spectroscopy proved the obtained mats were highly porous and composed by thin homogenous nanofibers with a good distribution of the used nanofillers, thus representing potential products for several purposes (e.g. biomedical, pharmaceutical and environmental applications).