ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the composition, properties, and antibacterial performance of biopolymer/metal composite electrospun webs. Biopolymer nanocomposites have attracted the attention of the research community since the last decade. Functionalization of electrospinning solutions with metal-based nanofillers for the production of biopolymer-based electrospun nanocomposites intended for antibacterial applications has been extensively investigated across the globe. Studies have been performed taking different biopolymers as base materials and hybridizing them with metallic nanoparticles and other additives to enhance antimicrobial activity. Biopolymer-based nanofibers have been gaining considerable attention in advanced research due to their applications in myriad industrial fields, like medicine, agriculture, textiles, ophthalmology, and automotives. Alginate is one of the most promising biopolymers in the biomedical applications because of its low cost, easy processability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, gel-forming nature, and excellent biodegradability. Gelatin is also one of the important natural biopolymers that can potentially find different biomedical applications, like tissue engineering, wound healing, and in scaffold formation.
