Preparation of Poly(acrylonitrile)-grafted Silk Fibers with Antibacterial Properties

This study is focused on investigating the feasibility of using silver(I) ions loaded poly(acrylonitrile)-grafted silk fibers as antibacterial dressing material. The optimum grafting conditions for ceric ammonium nitrate induced graft-copolymerization of acrylonitrile onto silk fibers were found to include initiator concentration of 35 mM, catalyst HNO3 concentration of 0.40 M and initiation time of 10 min. The poly(acrylonitrile)-grafted silk fibers were loaded with silver(I) ions by equilibration method. The resulting fibers were investigated for their biocidal action against E. coli, by using zone inhibition and colonies counting method.