Nanomaterials decoration on commercial cotton bandages for pain and infection management

Abstract

Cotton gauze bandages (CGB) are one of the most widely used wound dressing materials. These bandages are placed over a wound site to keep it clean and facilitate the healing process. However, it is used along with antibacterial agents (ointment) to prevent post-dressing infections. Further, other medications have to be orally administered for managing pain and wound healing. Therefore, in the current work, nanomaterials having drug releasing and antibacterial properties is coated onto the cotton gauze bandage to minimize the local pain and post-dressing infections at a wound site. We fabricated diclofenac sodium (an anti-inflammatory drug) loaded biodegradable, polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers mat through electrospinning and deposited it over the surface of a CGB that was initially coated by chitosan and decorated with ZnO nanoparticles. Chitosan coating over the CGB provides the antibacterial properties while the drug loaded nanofibers mat releases diclofenac sodium under a simulated drug release condition. In addition, the decorated ZnO nanoparticles have ultra violet radiation blocking properties. The modified bandage was characterised by SEM, EDAX, DSC, UV spectroscopy, and FTIR. The antibacterial property of the bandage was evaluated through zone of inhibition test during the anti-bacterial study. Thereafter, drug release and degradation studies revealed the modified bandage could provide sustained drug release for 15 days, perhaps through surface erosion and later bulk degradation mechanism. Thus, the nanomaterials decorated CGB can be a better alternative to native CGB for wound dressing applications.