Preparation and characterization of aqueous stable electro-spun nanofibers using polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl pyrrolidone/zeolite

Cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl pyrrolidone/zeolite fibers were prepared in the presence of potassium peroxodisulphate (K2S2O8) under the curing process by the electrospinning technique. The narrowest nanofibers of PVA/PVP (50:50) were prepared under optimum experimental conditions of 2.5 x 10(-4) mol of K2S2O8, an applied voltage of 22 KV, the distance of 15 cm and the feed rate of 0.2 mL/h. The progress of the cross-linking was examined by immersion of the prepared nanofibers in water and following the swelling degrees. By raising the K2S2O8 amount and curing time, the cross-linking density was increased. X-ray diffraction (XRD) demonstrated that the crystallinity of the nanofibers was decreased by the increase of K2S2O8 and the lowest crystallinity was observed for PVA/PVP (70:30). The contact angle of nanofibers was decreased from 72 degrees to 34 by increasing PVP ratio from 30 to 70. The morphology of the nanofibers before and after immersion in the simulated body fluid (SBF) was studied using electron scanning microscopy (SEM) and PVA/PVP (70:30) showed the highest changes in the morphology while the lowest one was observed for PVA/PVP (50:50). Moreover, the cross-linked PVA/ PVP with the ratio of 50:50 had the narrowest diameter of 200 +/- 100 nm, and by addition of about 0.5% zeolite, it was even reduced more to 150 +/- 50 nm. The cross-linked nanofibers (50:50) with 0.5 wt% and 1.5 wt% zeolite nanoparticles showed the tensile modules of 416.26 and 703.52 MPa, respectively, while in the absence of zeolite, it was209.25 MPa. Fibroblast L929 cells were cultured on the cross-linked PVA/PVP/zeolite (50:50:0.5) nanofiber, and the cell proliferation and growth was evaluated by MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. Fibroblasts grew on the surface of scaffold showed good morphology and proliferation after seven days and the absorption amount was increased from 0.075 to 0.78