Summary
This study addresses a well-known challenge in tissue engineering: producing uniform, stable chitosan nanofibers by electrospinning without damaging the fibers. The authors fabricated chitosan electrospun nanofibrous membranes and stabilised them by neutralisation in 1 M sodium hydroxide, then investigated how incorporating silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) at different concentrations affected the membranes’ antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity. The silver nanoparticles were synthesised by a wet chemical route and dispersed in the chitosan spinning solution before deposition onto an aluminium-foil collector. Fibre morphology and nanoparticle distribution were assessed by scanning electron microscopy with EDX, while swelling and weight-loss measurements characterised the membranes before and after alkaline treatment. The work identifies the processing conditions that yield uniform, antibacterial chitosan membranes suitable for wound-healing and tissue-regeneration applications.