pagination_REACT_3870.pdf (1.71 MB)
Electrospinning of polylactic acid fibres containing tea tree and manuka oil
journal contribution
posted on 2017-08-30, 07:45 authored by Wanwei Zhang, Chao Huang, Olga Kusmartseva, Noreen Thomas, Elisa MeleElisa MeleHere the effect of tea tree and manuka essential oils (EOs) on the mechanical properties and antibacterial activity of electrospun polylactic acid (PLA) fibres is investigated. It is found that the essential oils work as plasticisers for PLA, lowering the glass transition temperature of the resulting composite fibres up to 60% and increasing elongation-at-break and tensile strength up to 12 times. Manuka EO is particularly successful in blocking the formation of biofilms of Staphylococcus epidermidis that is typically involved in nosocomial infections associated with implanted devices. The results demonstrate that natural extracts can be used to control the mechanical behaviour of PLA fibres and to confer antibacterial activity.
History
School
- Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
- Materials
Published in
Reactive and Functional PolymersVolume
117Pages
106 - 111Citation
ZHANG, W. ... et al, 2017. Electrospinning of polylactic acid fibres containing tea tree and manuka oil. Reactive and Functional Polymers, 117, pp. 106-111.Publisher
© ElsevierVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Acceptance date
2017-06-19Publication date
2017Notes
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Reactive and Functional Polymers and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.reactfunctpolym.2017.06.013ISSN
1381-5148Publisher version
Language
- en