Figure - available from: Advances in Polymer Technology
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Illustration of (a) the hydrogen-bonding network of water to cellulose surface and (b) the hydrogen-bonding network of water to PCL fiber surface, respectively.
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The increasing intensity of coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading emphasizes the significant development in home food production to reduce the incoming socioeconomic impact from soaring food prices, supply chain fragility, and severe economic crisis. This preliminary study was initiated to demonstrate the possibility of using electrospun fibers as a pot...
Citations
... Electrospun NFs have emerged as an advanced coating method in the agriculture industry (Badgar et al. 2022). These NFs can be produced through the electrohydrodynamic atomization of polymeric solutions, making them biodegradable and biocompatible for sustainable use (Fadil et al. 2021). The studies summarized in Table 3, have demonstrated the effectiveness of electrospun NFs as a seed coating, with vertical electrospinning being the most commonly used method (Krishnamoorthy and Rajiv 2018;Farias et al. 2019). ...
... Utilization of NFs seed-coating to enhance seed germination by increasing fluid uptake ability (FUA) has been proven to be effective through observations of water absorption. For example, the application of Poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) granules as a germination substrate enhanced FUA (Fadil et al. 2021). Furthermore, Gorim and Asch (2015) conducted a study that analyzed the effect of NFs hydrogel coating on seedling growth, which resulted in a 75% increase. ...
Seed coating plays a crucial role in agriculture technology as a defence mechanism for crop protection and development. Conventional seed coating methods typically involve excessive material usage, high production costs and negatively impact human health and the environment. Orthodox approaches often require the use of bulk and hazardous substances, resulting in the inefficient delivery of active ingredients. Nanotechnology has emerged as a promising alternative with its small size, high surface area, and instantaneous reactivity leading to improved efficiency and reduced material usage. Recent studies have highlighted the use of nanomaterials, specifically nanoparticles and nanofibers which offer significant benefits in boosting the seed mechanical properties, germination and vigor index by enhancing seed water uptake, and nutrient absorption due to their permeability, small size and high surface area. Nanomaterials can provide better seed protection against biotic and abiotic stresses, including pests, diseases, and environmental factors such as drought and salinity. The controlled release of active ingredients from nanomaterials enhances plant development by ensuring the seeds receive the necessary nutrients over an extended period. Nanomaterials impregnated with biochemical agents, such as hormones and enzymes, can enhance the viability of these agents and improve crop growth by enabling a systematic release mechanism. This review provides an overview of the latest developments and understanding of how nanomaterials can be applied for seed coating purposes, including their mechanism of action and potential benefits. It is expected to provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in the field of agriculture and contribute to the development of sustainability.
... A syringe pump was used to deliver the polymer solution from a syringe to the needle at a fixed rate of 0.5 ml/hr. The electrospinning setup was described elsewhere [18][19][20]. ...
Face coverings such as a face mask are one of the important preventive measures amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, by limiting exhaled particles and reducing expiratory droplet spread. Adding a filter to face masks may offer extra protection against the virus. Nevertheless, there remains a significant concern where thicker, tightly woven materials of masks may reduce the ability to breathe comfortably, due to inadequate moisture management properties of woven fabric in existing disposable surgical face masks. Therefore, the study on the properties of air permeability, water vapor permeability, and flexural rigidity of a face mask fabric is highly essential. This study is aimed at analyzing the potential application of electrospun nanofibers fabricated from electrospinning technique, as filter inserts in commercial surgical face masks. The function of electrospun nanofiber filter (NF) inserted in commercial surgical face masks was introduced in the study. The results indicated the significant reduction in air permeability and water vapor permeability along with the additional usage of electrospun NF within the surgical face masks, due to the smaller fiber size and interspaces in the filter layer as analyzed from FESEM analysis. The percentage of air permeability value was slightly decreased by 15.9%, from 339.5 to 285.5 mm/s, whereas the value of flexural rigidity of surgical face masks with and without electrospun NF insert is 0.1358 and 0.1207 mg/cm, respectively. Hence, the NF inserts are recommended as the potential core component in a face mask.
New advances in materials science and medicine have enabled the development of new and increasingly sophisticated biomaterials. One of the most widely used biopolymers is polycaprolactone (PCL) because it has properties suitable for biomedical applications, tissue engineering scaffolds, or drug delivery systems. However, PCL scaffolds do not have adequate bioactivity, and therefore, alternatives have been studied, such as mixing PCL with bioactive polymers such as gelatin, to promote cell growth. Thus, this work will deal with the fabrication of nanofiber membranes by means of the electrospinning technique using PCL-based solutions (12 wt.% and 20 wt.%) and PCL with gelatin (12 wt.% and 8 wt.%, respectively). Formic acid and acetic acid, as well as mixtures of both in different proportions, have been used to prepare the preliminary solutions, thus supporting the electrospinning process by controlling the viscosity of the solutions and, therefore, the size and uniformity of the fibers. The physical properties of the solutions and the morphological, mechanical, and thermal properties of the membranes were evaluated. Results demonstrate that it is possible to achieve the determined properties of the samples with an appropriate selection of polymer concentrations as well as solvents.
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) incorporated cellulose acetate bio-polymer (CA) sustainable nanofiber (NFs) seed coating material was produced by electrospinning technique. Varying concentrations (12wt% to 17wt%) of CA as binder and 100mg/L of Zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnONPs) as an active ingredient were used to produce electrospun nanofiber seed coating. FESEM, water contact angle (WCA), and membrane porosity analysis were performed to determine the physical properties of the CA/ZnONPs NFs. The germination capacity (%) of the aerobic paddy seed cv. MRIA was used to examine the effect of treated coated seeds. Results indicate that CA-ZnONPs of 17wt% CA with 100mg/L of ZnONPs produced beads-free homogenous morphological fiber with a nanometric scale of 526±139nm. 17wt% of CA-ZnONPs electrospun nanofiber results in high porosity by 94% and increases hydrophobicity to 131±2.0° compared to (CA NFs) respectively. The highest germination percentage was obtained from coated seed with 17wt% of CA with 100mg/L of ZnONPs with 60% and 67%, respectively, at 3 and 7 days after incubation. It was enhanced by about 45% and 33% (3 days), 20.8% and 29.8% (7 days) as compared to CA NFs and control. Higher germination capacity is essential to paddy cultivation as it is a physiological element that contributes to producing good in growth performance and quality of rice yield.
