CHAPTER 8: Electrospun Polymer Nanofibers with Antimicrobial Activities

Antimicrobial polymers are used in several areas like medical devices, health care, hygienic application, water-purification systems, hospital, dental surgery equipment, textiles, food packaging, filtration, and storage. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to polymer nanofibers, as they exhibit outstanding properties such as a high specific surface area and high porosity. These polymer nanofibers can be used for a wide variety of applications such as separation filters, wound-dressing materials, tissue scaffolds, sensors, etc. Electrospinning is regarded as a simple and versatile technique for fabricating continuous fibers not only from polymers but also from polymer blends and composites. Polymer fibers with antimicrobial activities can be prepared by electrospinning having unique properties like high porosity, high surface area-to-volume and length-to-diameter ratios. This chapter provides an overview on the polymer nanofibers with antimicrobial activities, advantages, methods of preparations, polymers used to prepare antimicrobial nanofibers and some selected applications of nanofibers with antimicrobial activities.