Fabrication of sonicated chitosan nanofiber mat with enlarged porosity for use as hemostatic materials

Electrospinning of pure chitosan was employed to obtain a nanofibrous hemostatic material. Owing to the water-solubility of the resulting acidic chitosan nanofibers, the optimum neutralization conditions were identified by testing various alkaline solutions, so that an insoluble material could be achieved. The pore size and thickness of the neutralized chitosan nanofibers mat could be controlled using ultra-sonication. The porosity of the chitosan mat was increased from 79.9% to 97.2% with ultra-sonication treatment for 1 min, and the water absorption time decreased from 110 s to 9 s. The blood clotting efficiency measured for the sonicated chitosan nanofiber mat was 1.35- and 3.41-fold better than the efficiencies of the Surgicel and chitosan sponge, respectively. In addition, the proliferation of normal human dermal fibroblasts on the sonicated nanofiber mat was found to be 1.4-fold higher than that on the non-sonicated material after 7 days of culture. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.