Fabrication of Cellulosic Nonwoven Material Coated with Polyvinyl Alcohol and Zinc Oxide/Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Wound Dressing Purposes with Cephalexin Delivery

Wound dressings with antibacterial properties have emerged as a promising material to accelerate wound healing treatments. The present study explores the fabrication of non-woven fabric treated with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel including zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs), and mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MS-NPs) to develop wound dressings that can help to heal the wound. In addition, the antibiotic cephalexin was loaded to the composite coating to aid in mitigating the establishment of opportunistic bacterial infection. Accordingly, the antibacterial efficiency was evaluated against two common pathogenic bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E.coli) . To characterize the coated nonwoven, SEM images, XRD pattern, FTIR spectra, swelling ratio, drug release, and MTT assays were employed to describe the potential wound dressing. It was observed that the fabricated nanocomposite possesses a considerable capacity to take up water through swelling, and incorporation of ZnO-NPs and MS-NPs into the hydrogel network increased the swelling ratio of the samples to about 8 times. Moreover, the fabricated composite appeared to have significant properties of degradation: the release of the loaded drugs from the nanocomposite displayed a burst release at the first hours and by 80% release of the cephalexin happened after 32 h. Lastly, the treated composite demonstrated excellent antibacterial properties against the selected bacteria. The results of this study indicate that the novel nanocomposite wound dressing may be a significant innovation for the medical treatment of infected skin wounds.