Paper Title
Electrospinning of Chitosan/Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) Nanofibrous Membranes as An Alternative Wound Dressing Material

Abstract
A study of the influence of CS concentrations on the tensile properties corresponding to the fiber morphology formed in CS/PVA membranes is this research focus. The ability of the developed membranes for an alternative wound dressing material is also studied. The CS/PVA membranes were prepared using chitosan (CS) solution with different concentrations of (1, 3, 5, and 7 wt. %) combined with 10 wt. % poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and a CS/PVA ratio of 5/95 by electro spinning method. The membranes with an optimized CS concentration of 3% and different CS/PVA ratios of 10/90, 15/85, and 20/80 were also studied. The membrane with 3 % CS concentration showed an optimum tensile strength (5.62 ± 0.47 MPa) with a CS/PVA ratio of 5:95. The improvement of the CS/PVA ratio increased the tensile strength and modulus of the membranes, which reached a maximum value (7.68 ± 1.94 MPa) at a CS/PVA ratio of 20:80, leading to a high density of tight bonds between the fibers. A simulation by finite element method (FEM) on the tensile properties of the CS/PVA membrane has shown that the membrane can be used as an alternative wound dressing material. Keywords - Chitosan, PVA, Nanofibrous Membrane, Tensile Properties, Wound Dressing Material