Approach To Fabricate a Compact Cotton Patch without Weaving: A Smart Bandage Material

In this present work, we are reporting a novel approach for fabrication of a kind of highly absorbent, highly stable, flexible, and compact biopolymeric hydrogel bound cotton patch. This novel technique not only exempts the spinning of cotton yarn and use of loom or other kinds of weaving machines but also makes it possible to get a soft but mechanically robust textile material. The mechanical strength and softness as well as the flexibility of such patches can be tuned just by varying the concentration of the biopolymer. Incorporation of graphene oxide in such patches not only improved the mechanical strength but also added the antimicrobial property to the patches. These patches are even stable in the presence of aqueous medium. Most importantly the polymeric matrix hydrogel part, present over the surface of cotton fibers, creates the possibility of loading different kinds of drugs, micro- or nanomaterials, different chemicals, etc. for numerous applications. With this hydrogel coated cotton patch we finally came out with a bandage material a complete package with a minimal number of ingredients, viz., graphene oxide and curcumin, specially designed to work on infected wounds.