Fabrication and characterization of metallic glass nanotube array as in application of wound dressing

Abstract Currently, wound dressing is often used to accelerate wound healing, avoid contaminations from the external environment and protect wound from infections, control moisture around the wound, meanwhile being biocompatible and non-toxic. Thin film metallic glass (TFMG) possess amorphous structure that driven to several unique properties such as excellent strength and high surface smoothness. Zr-based (Zr63.5Cu19.9Al11.5Ni5.1 (at%)) and W-based (W65.4Ni30.5B4.1) metallic glasses were selected as the candidate of nanotube array in this study. A layered structure Zr/W/Zr-based TFMGs were deposited on a nanotube array template and then fabricated into MeNTA and applied as a substrate of wound dressing. Hyaluronic acid (HA) and hyaluronic acid/ gold nanoparticles (HA/AuNPs) composite were loaded into the MeNTA under vacuum ambient. Animal test was conducted on live pigs in order to observe the improvement in wound healing and wound biopsy by attaching drug-loaded MeNTA. After loading the drugs into nanotubes array, significant change in diameter and surface appearance of nanotube is observed. In the animal test, both HA and HA/AuNPs loaded MeNTA accelerated wound healing process up to 96.4% and 90.5%, respectively.