.

PROJECT
PROPOSAL

Nanofibers: finding
applications in Wound care
products
IDEAS1

1- DEVELOPMENT OF NANOFIBER NON-WOVEN

BANDAGES TO PROMOTE CELL GROWTH AT WOUND
SURFACE.1

2- DEVELOPMENT OF NANOFIBER NON-WOVEN

BANDAGES WHICH STIMULATE WOUND HEALING.1

3- INCORPORATION OF BACTERICIDAL COMPONENT

INTO NANOFIBER FABRIC.1

4- REDUCING COST OF MEDICAL BANDAGES BY

EXPLOITING CURRENT MANUFACTURING PROCESSES.

Submitted by: Ubaid ur Rehman

School of Textiles, University of Borås

INTRODUCTION:

Nature operates at the nanoscale, and today we are acquiring an increasingly profound
understanding of natural processes at this scale. At the nanometre scale, materials often
exhibit surprisingly different physical, chemical and biological properties, compared to the very
same material in bulk form. The properties of nanoparticles, such as increased chemical activity
and the ability to cross tissue barriers, are leading to new drug delivery techniques.

OBJECTIVES OF THE THESIS:

The objectives of this thesis is to explore the prospects in which nanofibers can be used in
medical bandages and in parallel, finding ways to bring down the cost of medical bandages by
exploiting modern manufacturing techniques.

IMPROVING HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE (HRQL):

The major drawback of traditional dressing materials is that the loose fibers/lints trap into the
healing tissue and cause trauma on bandage removal; nanofibers in general, form an extremely
long continuous filament that means less chances of loose fibres being trapped in the healing
tissue thus providing uninterrupted healing atmosphere, avoiding trauma and improving HRQL
as a result. The nano size enables us to develop bandages so thin (and still effective) that they
can act like a second skin, taking the comfort level of patient at a higher degree.

STIMULATING WOUND HEALING:

Using nanofibers in medical bandages has several advantages over traditional materials. Their
major advantage over traditional materials is that they are similar in size to the nanofibers of
our own body (fibroblast) and can be imitated to mimic our skin. This property makes them
comparatively more compatible for use in medical textiles by providing an opportunity for
healthy cells to grow in an ideal environment that means stimulated wound healing. Nanofibers
have extremely high aspect ratio (surface area to volume) which provides more opportunities
to manoeuvre them by incorporating medical aspect on their surface (effective delivery of
medication).

NANO-FIBERS CAN BE EXPLOITED IN NO. OF WAYS (PROPOSED METHODOLOGY):

Using Functional Polymers:

Functional polymers, collagen for instance, can be directly spun into nanofibers. The drawback
is that due to their high molecular weights and/or solubilities, there are many functional
polymers that cannot be spun into nanofibers. One of the most successful startegies for solving
this problem is to blend them with polymers that are well suited for electrospinning. This too
has certain limitations.
Encapsulation of Functional Components:
Another approach is to add functional components to the solution for electrospinning to obtain
nanofibers with a diversified range of compositions and well-difined functionalities.

Modification of nanofibers:
The nanofibers prepared by electrospinning can be modified in a number of waysto improve
their properties and/or to increase the diversity of materials that could be processed as fibrous
nanostructures. Surface coating can be a simple approach in this regard but modification can
be done using both physical and chemical processes.

Nanofibers with Core/Sheath structure:

It is also possible to fabricate corer/sheath nanofiber for with the use of conventional setup for
electrospinning, when a polymer solution containing two polymers that will phase separate as
the solvent is evaporated. This type of structure is useful for incorporating medications like
bactericidal components.

Nanofibers with porous structure:

The surface area of nanofibers can be further increased by switching the structure from solid to
porous. This increase of surface area can be of great advantage specially for absorption and
medication/drug injection.

COST REDUCTION OF MEDICAL BANDAGES:

The major hindrance in widespread use of medical bandages in developing countries is their
high cost. A recent study undertaken by Textile Research and Innovation Center (TRIC) in
Pakistan shows that the price range of modern/unconventional medical healthcare products is
from Rs.40/- to Rs.3000/- and the conventional bandages are as cheap as Rs.10/-
(The details of the study are attached)
Cost reduction of medical bandages is needed to make the advantages of modern medical
bandages available to a common person from third world countries. For this purpose, modern
manufacturing methods and materials can be explored to bring the prices down.

EXPECTED RESULTS/ACHIEVEMENTS:

I hope to achieve with this project the target of producing self medicating nanofiber bandages
by incorporating different kind of medications inside the fibers or by electrospining of
functional polymers to produce nanofiber bandages; and all of it produced in a cost effective
way to make them feasible to realize manufacturing and easily approachable.