Nonwetting Nanostructured Hemostatic Material for Bleeding Control with Minimal Adhesion

Hemostatic materials are widely used for bleeding control. However, existing blood-absorbing wound dressing materials have two unaddressed challenges, blood loss through the hydrophilic material and strong clot adhesion that prevents gauze removal. Here, a nonwetting nanofiber structured material based on a two-step spray coating procedure for hemostatic application is developed. Interfacial behaviors at the blood/clot-material interface are exploited for bleeding control and minimizing wound adhesion. It is shown that this nonwetting material can retain blood within the wound, thus preventing blood loss. The nanofiber structure and kaolin microparticles collectively promote fast clotting to seal the wound and generate point-to-point contacts between clot and the nanofiber surface. These point-to-point contacts would subsequently be damaged by the interfacial shear induced by clot contraction, generating a peeling force significantly smaller than commercial low-adherent or fast-clotting hemostatic products. Its bleeding control and low adhesion properties are verified by in vivo animal experiments. The work therefore provides an efficient hemostatic material with excellent bleeding control and low wound adhesion properties, demonstrating an effective strategy to design advanced hemostatic materials by exploiting the interfacial behaviors.