Preparation of coconut oil-incorporated natural rubber/pluronic/chitin whisker nanocomposite film for wound treatment

Abstract

The appearance of a scar after wound healing can be a major medical problem. Accordingly, new dressings for scar prevention/reduction are still being developed. In this study, natural rubber was used as a matrix to provide pressure to a wound in order to prevent collagen over-production, a cause of scar formation. Chitin whisker acted as a nanofiller and provided strength to the matrix. Pluronic has been reported to improve blood flow to a wound, resulting in less scar formation. Furthermore, pluronic is an amphiphilic molecule that can self-assemble to form micelles in an aqueous solution. Coconut oil as a skin recovery enhancing agent was incorporated into the bionanocomposite via the micelle formation of pluronic by varying the ratio of pluronic to the oil. Chitin whisker content was varied to be 2.5%wt, 5%wt and 10%wt. It was found that the stability of coconut oil/pluronic emulsion increased with increasing the ratios of pluronic. The effects of coconut oil and chitin whisker content on tensile strength and elongation at break of the bionanocompositc sheets were evaluated. The dispersion of chitin whisker and coconut oil in the bionanocomposite sheets was investigated by scanning electron microscope. The diffusion of coconut oil from the bionanocomposite sheets was examined with modified Franz diffusion cells.