Research on nanoparticles have been developed significantly because of the unusual physical and chemical properties of the nanoparticles. The novel physical and chemical properties of these particles due to factors such as size, surface and quantum size effect. Metal oxide nanoparticles are intensely studied due to their Unique optical, electrical, and catalytic properties. Among these materials, copper oxide nanoparticles have special features, including abundance in the nature, low cost, stability compared to non-oxidized state and non-toxic property. In this work copper oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by gel combustion method. Nanofibers containing the nanoparticles were produced using electrospinning and nanofiber properties were investigated. Nylon 6 nanofibers containing 0 wt%, 2%, 4% and 8% copper oxide nanoparticles were prepared by electrospining. The surface morphology and properties of copper oxide nanoparticles and nylon 6 nanofibers were investigated by SEM, FTIR, XRD, DSC and TGA tests. Copper oxide nanoparticles XRD results show good agreement with the references and the high purity. The average particle size of copper oxide nanoparticles that were measurment by SEM was about 45 nm. The results FTIR confirmed the existence of nanoparticles in the electrospinning nanofiber. The nanofiber diameter showed that by increasing the amount of copper oxide nanoparticles, due to increased electrical conductivity of the polymer solution, the diameter of the nanofibers decreased. Furthermore, slight increasing in T g, T m , and Tc of nylon 6 nanofiber containing 8% copper oxide nanoparticles was observed. Thermal stability of nanofibers, indicating a decrease in the thermal stability of the copper oxide nanoparticles. Nylon 6 nanofibers containing different percentages of copper oxide nanoparticles were tested for antibacterial properties of both E. coli and Bacillus subtilis. The results indicated that the copper oxide nanoparticles have inhibitory properties to bacteria. Keywords: Nanoparticles, copper oxide, nanofibers, nylon 6, Electrospining.
