Electrospinning/electrospraying vs. electrospinning: A comparative study on the design of poly(l-lactide)/zinc oxide non-woven textile

Abstract New hybrid fibrous materials from the biocompatible and biodegradable aliphatic polyester poly( l -lactide) (PLA) and pristine or surface-functionalized nanosized zinc oxide were prepared. The application of the techniques: (i) electrospinning of a suspension of ZnO in PLA solution, or (ii) simultaneous electrospinning of PLA solution and electrospraying of a ZnO suspension in PLA solution (at low PLA concentration) enabled the fabrication of hybrid materials of diverse design: non-woven textile consisting of fibers in which ZnO was deposited on the fibers’ surface (designated as type “ on” ) or was mainly in the fibers’ bulk (designated as type “ in” ). The photocatalytic activity of the new fibrous materials was estimated in respect to Methylene Blue (MB) and Reactive Red (RR) dyes. Type “ on” hybrid materials had higher photocatalytic activity as compared to type “ in ” materials. It was shown that type “ on ” materials preserved their photocatalytic activity in respect to MB even after three repeated uses, while for the RR dye the same held true for ZnO- on -PLA mats only. The type “ on ” materials exhibited antimicrobial activity against the pathogenic microorganism Staphylococcus aureus as evidenced by the performed microbiological tests.