High antibacterial performance of electrospinning silk fibroin/gelatin film modified with graphene oxide‐sliver nanoparticles

ABSTRACT In this study, graphene oxide‐sliver nanoparticle (GO‐AgNP) composite was synthesized in situ with GO as the raw material. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the composite, the spherical Ag particles with a diameter of about 36 nm were well deposited on the surface of GO nanosheets without serious agglomeration, and the antibacterial properties of the composites were also tested. Moreover, the silk fibroin (SF)/gelatin (GT) electrospun nanofiber film was prepared by electrospinning, and the structure of the SF nanofiber film was observed using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, X‐ray diffractometer, and scanning electron microscope. The TGA curves indicated that the total weight loss rate of SF nanofibers at 400°C was significantly higher than that of SF/GT composite nanofibers (74.72% for pure SF, 62.37% for SF/GT nanocomposites). Finally, the GO‐AgNP composite was combined with electrospinning SF film, which resulted in the decrease in surface roughness from 393.5 ± 123.7 nm to 109.9 ± 24.43 nm and the decrease in contact angle from 82.48° to 54.78°. Besides, the GO‐AgNP composites enhanced the antibacterial performance of SF film greatly, which was conducive to its application in biological tissue engineering. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136 , 47904.