Investigation of the effects of plasma-treated chitosan electrospun fibers onto biofilm formation

This work describes the synthesis and characterization of new plasma-treated chitosan derivatives for the prevention of the biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 (P. aeruginosa PA01) on the fiber surfaces of chitosan (Ch) samples. Plasma-treated samples of chitosan-thiophene (Ch-PTh), chitosan-furan (Ch-PFu) and chitosan-3,4ethylenedioxythiophene (Ch-PEDOT) were prepared with RF rotating plasma. Characterization and investigation of the properties of plasma -treated chitosan samples were carried out using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. XPS data confirmed that a surface layer of the plasma -treated chitosan was enriched with thiophene, furan and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene. The surface morphology and diameter of the plasma -treated chitosan derivative fibers were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Plasma -treated chitosan derivative fibers were obtained using electrospinning-quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) methods. Finally, QCM was used to investigate initial adhesion and subsequent biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa PA01 on electrode surfaces coated with the plasma -treated fibers. Biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa PA01 on electrode surface coated with Ch-PFu fiber was significantly inhibited as compared to the others. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.