Novel mosquito repellent fiber mat containing nepeta essential oil prepared by coaxial electrospinning

Nepeta essential oil (NEO) is considered to have good mosquito repellent properties, the poor stability of which limits the application. This work was aimed at using coaxial electrospinning technology to wrap NEO into Polylactic acid (PLA) fibers to extend the service life of NEO. Under the best test conditions, NEO load capacity (LC) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) is (20.20 +/- 0.35%) and (84.18 +/- 1.46%), respectively. According to morphology analysis, the concentration of PLA solution and the flow rate of NEO will affect the morphology and properties of the fibers, and the minimum average diameter of the obtained fibers is 740 nm. Release test indicates that using coaxial electrospinning technology can significantly slow down the NEO release rate, in the mosquito avoidance test, the coaxial fiber mat maintained about 80% mosquito repellent rate within 72 h, which is superior to the commercially available N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET) repellent, indicating its potential in the field of mosquito repellent.