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Lookup NU author(s): Mikal Negasi, Dr Ute JungwirthORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Early-stage bacterial contamination and rapid biofilm growth are critical barriers to effective wound healing, highlighting the need for dressing materials that enable prompt, localised antibacterial intervention while maintaining cytocompatibility and sustainability. Here, we report a sustainable electrospun Janus nanofiber membrane based on two bio-derived semi-aromatic furan polyamides, poly(octamethylene furanamide) (PA8F) and poly(decamethylene furanamide) (PA10F), for antibacterial wound dressing applications. Although PA8F and PA10F differ only by two methylene units and show modest wettability differences as dense films, electrospinning into nanofiber networks amplifies this subtle molecular contrast into a pronounced, robust wettability asymmetry that enables a Janus dressing architecture without chemical surface modification. Tetracycline was physically dispersed within the hydrophilic PA8F, prior to electrospinning, to localise antibiotic delivery at the wound-material interface. The Janus membrane exhibits uniform, bead-free nanofibrous morphology and pronounced interfacial wettability asymmetry. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal distinct polymer-water interaction behaviours that underpin the experimentally observed hydration contrast between PA8F and PA10F. Drug release studies demonstrate rapid antibiotic availability, reaching ∼20 μg mL−1 in phosphate-buffered saline within 4 h. The Janus membranes achieve ∼1 log and ∼2 log reductions against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus colony biofilms, respectively, and produce ∼0.5 log bacterial reduction in an ex vivo porcine burn wound infection model. This study establishes the first use of sustainable furan-based semi-aromatic polyamides as electrospun wound dressings and demonstrates how electrospinning-induced asymmetry can translate subtle molecular differences into efficient, localised antibacterial delivery for advanced wound care.
Author(s): Ding X, Tun Thet N, Herdes C, Chaloner E, Negasi M, Kontou I, Laabei M, Jungwirth U, Savage D, Kamran M, Zachariadis M, Jenkins T, Davidson MG, Leese HS
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Bioactive Materials
Year: 2026
Volume: 65
Pages: 1043-1055
Print publication date: 01/11/2026
Online publication date: 24/06/2026
Acceptance date: 13/06/2026
Date deposited: 25/06/2026
ISSN (print): 2097-1192
ISSN (electronic): 2452-199X
Publisher: KeAi Publishing Communications Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioactmat.2026.06.022
DOI: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2026.06.022
Data Access Statement: Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.bioactmat.2026.06.022.
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