IP: 5.12.152.73 On: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 11:55:53 Copyright: American Scientific Publishers Delivered by Ingenta Copyright © 2018 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Article Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Vol. 18, 2881–2891, 2018 www.aspbs.com/jnn Development of Antibacterial Composite Electrospun Chitosan-Coated Polypropylene Materials Melike Gozutok, Ahmet Ozan Basar, and Hilal Turkoglu Sasmazel ∗ Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Atilim University, Incek, Golbasi, Ankara, 06836, Turkey In this study, a natural antibacterial substance chitosan was coated with/without potassium sorbate (KS) (0.8% (w/w) of KS, 8% (w/v) chitosan) onto the polypropylene (PP) film by using electro- spinning technique to obtain novel antibacterial composite materials for various applications such as wound dressing, tissue engineering, drug delivery and food packaging. Atmospheric pressure plasma surface treatment was applied onto polypropylene films in order to increase its wettabil- ity thus enhancing the adhesion capacity of the films and the optimum CA value was determined as 42.75 ± 0.80  . Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analyses were realized to observe the morphological changes and chemical properties of the samples, respectively. Contact angle measurements, tensile testing, oxygen and water vapor transmission rate analyses were performed to obtain wettability values, mechanical properties and WVTRs, respectively. The WVTR was increased by plasma treatment and addition of KS (from 14.264 ± 0.214% to 21.020 ± 0.659%). The desired antibacterial performance of the samples was assessed with Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli by inhibition ratio calculation and disc diffusion assay. The highest inhibition ratios were found as 64% for S. aureus and 92% for E. coli for plasma-treated CS-KS-PP films. Keywords: Antibacterial Composite Material, Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) Plasma Modification, Electrospun Chitosan, Polypropylene Film, Bacteria Culture. 1. INTRODUCTION The natural polysaccharide chitosan (CS) which is a deacetylated derivative of chitin has gained many attrac- tions lately because it can be obtained from natural compounds in the form of renewable, low-cost films. The chitosan is also biodegradable and nontoxic, and has excel- lent biocompatibility with its excellent antioxidant and antibacterial properties. CS and composites containing CS have been widely used in several applications requiring antibacterial properties such as wound healing, food pack- aging, tissue engineering and drug delivery. 1–9 On the other hand, the synthetic polymer polypropy- lene (PP) has begun to be widely utilized in antibacterial applications because of its availability and low cost, resis- tance against chemicals, barrier properties against mois- ture and good mechanical properties. 10 11 For instance, a study performed by Khalaj et al. aimed to prove the potential of PP/clay/iron-nanoparticle nanocomposites as a ∗ Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. packaging material for the food industry. At the end of the study, mechanical, thermal, morphological, and oxygen permeability characteristics of the obtained PP composites showed that the developed composites were suitable can- didates for antibacterial food packaging. 10 In another study by Xin et al., polypropylene non-woven fabric (PPNWF) was facilely modified with passive and active antibac- terial components, namely photografting polymerization both N -Vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) and glycidyl methacry- late (GMA) monomers, and the introduction of guanidine polymer via the reaction between active amino groups and epoxy groups. The results of this study suggested that PPNWF samples had antifouling and antimicrobial perfor- mances, which made them potential candidate materials for wound dressing field. 11 Composite materials prepared by chitosan and PP together had been investigated in terms of their antibac- terial properties for many applications. Nistico et al. pre-treated PP meshes with atmospheric pressure plasma dielectric barrier discharge to enhance the surface adhesion J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 2018, Vol. 18, No. 4 1533-4880/2018/18/2881/011 doi:10.1166/jnn.2018.14380 2881