Waterborne Polyurethane/Modified Graphene Oxide Antibacterial Wound Dressing

Abstract In order to develop wound dressings with high healing efficiency by an environmentally friendly method, waterborne polyurethane (WPU)/modified graphene oxide (MGO) composite films were prepared by latex blending and casting. The WPU was prepared by a two-step polymerization approach using polyethylene glycol and polytetramethylene ether glycol as soft segments and isophorone diisocyanate and l-lysine as hard segments. The MGO with excellent antibacterial property was synthesized by surface grafting polyhexamethylene guanidine (PHMG) onto graphene oxide (GO). The cytotoxicity, antibacterial activity, and wound-healing efficiency of WPU, WPU/PHMG, WPU/GO, and WPU/MGO composite films were systematically investigated, and their feasibility for using the films as wound dressings was evaluated. The results show that the WPU/MGO composite film displays good antibacterial capability and biocompatibility and further promotes wound healing, which are far superior to those of the control samples of Vaseline gauze, WPU/PHMG, and WPU/GO composite films, displaying great potential as wound dressings. When the content of MGO was 1.0 wt %, the WPU/MGO composite films possessed the best anti-bacterial property (88.20% against Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and 86.90% against Escherichia coli bacteria) and the fastest wound-healing performance (post-operation 9d, 93.7%).