Interior synthesizing of ZnO nanoflakes inside nylon-6 electrospun nanofibers

Doping of the polymeric electrospun nanofibers by metal oxides nanoparticles is usually performed by electrospinning of a colloidal solution containing the metal oxide nanoparticles. Besides the economical aspects, electrospinning of colloids is not efficient compared with spinning of solgels, moreover well attachment of the solid nanoparticles is not guaranteed. In this study, reduction of zinc acetate could be performed inside the nylon-6 electrospun nanofibers; so polymeric nanofibers embedding ZnO nanoflakes were obtained. Typically, zinc acetate/nylon-6 electrospun nanofibers were treated hydrothermally at 150 degrees C for 1 h. Besides the utilized characterization techniques, PL study affirmed formation of ZnO. The produced nanofibers showed a good antibacterial activity which improves with increasing ZnO content. Overall, the present study opens new avenue to synthesize hybrid nanofibers by a facile procedure. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 127: 2025-2032, 2013