Electrospun Nitrocellulose and Composite Nanofibers

Electrospinning was applied to nitrocellulose (NC) solutions in DMF, DMSO and Ethyl methyl keton to obtain NC nanofibers. Electrospraying process was observed when DMF was used as solvent. In comparison to NC/DMF, NC/DMSO solution resulted in the formation of a coating film as indicate by SEM. Two different electrospun nanofibers, smooth nanofibers with 90 to 150 nm diameters and porous nanofibers with 400 to 500 nm diameter, was noticed when EMK was used. Electrospun explosive composite nanofibers were also successfully prepared from NC to modify the properties of NC and their morphology were investigated by SEM. Explosive materials such as nitrotriazolone (NTO), its sodium salt, picric acid and nanosilver were used as the second component of the composites. A reduction in the diameters of the composite nanofibers involving Na- NTO was noticed comparing to the parent NC nanofibers. The diameters of the other explosive composite nanofibers were in the range of 50-300 nm indicating no significant diameter change for NC nanofibers upon the addition of 0.1 wt% NTO and picric acid. Composite nanofibers containing nanosilver particles were also prepared and their antibacterial activities were tasted against E. coli and S. aureus. These nanofibers successfully inhibited the growth of both bacteria.