Preparation and characterization of antibacterial polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan sponge and potential applied for wound dressing

In this work, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with antimicrobial properties (QPVD), which were modified by 2-(Dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and 1-bromobutane. QPVD/chitosan (CS) composite sponge dressing (QPVDC) were prepared using freeze-drying process and cross-linked with glutaraldehyde vapor. Interestingly, compared with CS wound dressing, water absorption and flexibility of QPVDC wound dressing could be significantly improved with QPVD introduced. Among them, the water absorption of QPVDC sponge was up to 2300% and the elongation at break increased by 40–113%. In addition, QPVDC sponges with more quaternary ammonium could improve higher antibacterial activity, and the highest antibacterial activity of QPVDC sponges was close to 100% against E. coli and S. aureus . The results of hemolysis and cytotoxicity in vitro indicated that QPVDC wound dressing had excellent hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility. In summary, QPVDC wound dressing could protect from bacterial infection and accelerate wound healing. Thus, QPVDC had high potential application value for wound dressing.