Effect of PVA content on morphology, swelling and mechanical property of crosslinked chitosan/PVA nanofibre

Crosslinked chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibres were successfully prepared via electro-spinning technique with heat mediated chemical crosslinking. The structure, morphology and mechanical properties of nanofibres were characterised by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR- FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and tensile tester respectively. The SEM images demonstrated that crosslinked nanofibres exhibited a smooth surface and regular morphology. With increasing PVA, swelling of nanofabric increased. The mechanical properties of the fibre mats, as determined in a static tensile test, improved with increasing PVA composition owing to strong interaction between chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) molecular resulted from intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The crosslinked chitosan/poly (vinyl alcohol) nanofibrous mats have potential use as artificial skin and other tissue scaffold materials.