Morphology and Properties of Electrospun PCL and Its Composites for Medical Applications: A Mini Review (original) (raw)
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Electrospun Polycaprolactone Nanofibers: Current Research and Applications in Biomedical Application
Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Unique mechanical properties, miscibility potency, and biodegradability are the three prominent features of Polycaprolactone (PCL), making it an attractive biomaterial which commonly applied in regenerative medicine and biomedical engineering. Different strategies developed for fabricating nanofibrous construct, electrospinning is a practical, simple, and efficient technique based on electro-hydrodynamic systems that use an electrified viscous fluid jet drawn by the air toward a collector at a changing electric potential. PCL electrospun-based nanofibrous composites as proper scaffolds are employed in stem cell-related research, particularly in tissue engineering, wound dressing, and systems designed for sending drugs. A compilation of mechanochemical properties and most common biological performance on PCL-based electrospun fibrous structures in biomedical application are included in this study. Therefore, electrospun PCL nanofiber applying has been presented, and after that, curre...
Biomedical applications of electrospun polycaprolactone fiber mats
Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a biodegradable polyester emerging into biomedical applications because of its biodegradability, biocompatibility, chemical stability, thermal stability and good mechanical properties. Electrospinning is a versatile method using electrostatic forces for fabricating continuous ultrafine fibers that offer various advantages such as high surface area and high porosity. Thus, this method has gained interest for use in many fields, especially biomedical fields. This review focuses on researches and studies in electrospinning, PCL, electrospinning of PCL and also biomedical applications of the electrospun PCL fiber mats.
Fabrication and Characterization of Polycaprolactone (PCL)/Gelatin Electrospun Fibers
Over the past few decades, there has been considerable interest in developing electrospun fibers by using electrospinning technique for various applications. Polymer blending is one of the most effective methods in providing desired properties. In this study, synthetic polymer polycaprolactone (PCL) was blended together with natural polymer gelatin where both of them have different properties. It is done by using electrospinning technique. 10 %w/v and 14 %w/v PCL/gelatin electrospun fibers were successfully electrospun with different weight ratio. Processing parameters were set constant in this study and only solution parameters were altered. The optimized electrospun fiber formed was 14 %w/v PCL/gelatin 70:30 with average fiber diameter of 246.30 nm. No beaded fiber was formed in this scanning electron microscope (SEM) image. The result obtained also showed that by increasing the overall polymeric concentration of PCL/gelatin, average fiber diameter decreases. Fiber diameter was also found decreasing with the increase of the concentration of gelatin in the same concentratoin of PCL/gelatin blended electrospun fiber. Blending of PCL and gelatin in different weight ratio had provided different properties of electrospun fibers. It is believed that blended electrospun fibers can be used for biomedical applications.
Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 2019
In the present study, PCL (polycaprolactone) nanofibres were produced by the electrospinning method. The use of PCL electrospun biopolymer in biomedical applications has attracted considerable interest due to its chemical resistance, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and non-toxic characteristics. However, the hydrophobic nature of PCL polymer restricts the useage of PCL nanofibres for the cell adhesion and absorption. A hydrophilic and biocompatible PCL electrospun mat with a low water contact angle is an attractive strategy for development in tissue engineering and wound dressing. In this study, we demonstrate a feasible and simple method to produce hydrophilic PCL nanofibres for possible application in wound dressing. Chloroform/ethanol (EtOH) and chloroform/dimethylformamide (DMF) mixtures were used as two different solvent systems. The impact of the polymeric solution concentration, applied voltage, and solvent mixtures on the fibre surface morphology and water contact angle ...
Porous electrospun polycaprolactone fibers: Effect of process parameters
Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, 2016
The effect of electrospinning process parameters (solution flow rate, applied voltage, spinning distance) on the size and surface morphology of porous electrospun poly(ε-caprolactone) was investigated in this study. Response surface methodology was implemented for the design and conduction of electrospinning experiments. The feed solution was a 12.5% w/v poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) solution in a binary solvent mixture of 90%v/v chloroform/ dimethyl sulfoxide. Spinning distance of 10-25 cm, applied voltage of 10-25 kV and feed flow rate of 0.5-5 ml/h were the range of limiting values of the independent variables used for the development of a central composite design. Second order polynomial equations, correlating electrospinning process parameters to relative pore coverage and fibre average diameter were developed and validated. An increase in any of the electrospinning process parameters favoured pore formation and fibre diameter increase. Under the experimental conditions investigated, the relative pore surface coverage was 15.8-31.9% and the average fibre diameter was in the range of 1.6-3.3 μm. Applied voltage was proven to be the parameter with the strongest impact on both, fibre diameter and surface morphology.
Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2014
The electrospinning of polycaprolactone (PCL) dissolved in glacial acetic acid and the characterization of the resultant nonwoven fiber mats is reported in this work. For comparison purposes, PCL fiber mats were also obtained by electrospinning the polymer dissolved in chloroform. Given the processing parameters chosen, results show that 14 and 17 wt % PCL solutions are not viscous enough and yield beaded fibers, 20 and 23 wt % solutions give rise to high quality fibers and 26 wt % solutions yield mostly irregular and fused fibers. The nonwoven mats are highly porous, retain the high tensile strain of PCL, and the fibers are semicrystalline. Cells adhere and proliferate equally well on all mats, irrespective of the solvent used in their production. In conclusion, mats obtained by electrospinning PCL dissolved in acetic acid are also a good option to consider when producing scaffolds for tissue engineering. Moreover, acetic acid is miscible with polar solvents, which may allow easier blending of PCL with hydrophilic polymers and therefore achieve the production of electrospun nanofibers with improved properties.
Recent development of tissue engineering has been emphasized on tissue regeneration and repairing in order to solve the limitation of organ and tissue transplantation issues. Biomaterial scaffold, which plays an important role in this development, not only provides a promising alternative in order to improve the efficiency of cell transplantation in tissue engineering but also to deliver cells with growth factors and drugs into injured tissue to increase the survival of cell via drug delivery system. In this study, nanofibers were fabricated through blending of a synthetic polymer, polycaprolactone (PCL) and a natural polymer, Gelatin (Ge) using electrospinning technique. Processing parameters were optimized to determine the most suitable properties of PCL/Ge nanofibers. The surface morphology of PCL/Ge nanofibers were then characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Six samples of nanofibers from different amount of gelatin mixed with 10% PCL (w/v) were successfully fabricated. Experimental results showed that 18kV of high voltage provided more homogenous and less beaded nanofibers. Meanwhile, the 0.8g of Ge in 10% PCL (w/v) was set as the maximum concentration while 0.2g of Ge in 10% PCL (w/v) was set as the minimum concentration to reduce the bead formation.
Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2019
In recent years, solution electrospinning has attracted the interest of researchers due to the possibility to design nanofibrous scaffolds with large surface area to volume ratios. Polycaprolactone (PCL), because of its biocompatibility and easy processability, has been widely used to develop electrospun structures for tissue engineering. However, the use of organic solvents and the poor PCL solution stability still hinder the development of the solution electrospinning process. The relatively benign glacial acetic acid (GAC) as a solvent of PCL was used to fabricate microfibrous fibers or beaded fibers. Thus, ethylene carbonate (EC) as a nontoxic assistant solvent was added to the PCL/GAC solution to successfully fabricate electrospun nanofibrous PCL scaffolds. The stability of the PCL/GAC/EC solution system was demonstrated as the viscosity, which showed no significant change during 48 h. The ultrafine PCL fiber diameter decreased as EC concentration was increased from 0 to 9 vol% and started to slightly increase when EC concentration increased beyond 9 vol%. MTT assay evidenced that MC3T3-E1 cells on the nanofibrous PCL scaffolds exhibited a better enhancement on cell proliferation. In summary, EC was added in PCL/GAC to establish a stable and low toxic solution electrospinning system, which provides promising strategy in tissue engineering field.
International Journal of Polymeric Materials and Polymeric Biomaterials, 2014
The effect of electrospinning parameters on morphology, molecular, and supermolecular structure of polycaprolactone (PCL) fibers was analyzed, with respect to tissue engineering applications. Fibers morphology and structure are mainly determined by solution concentration and collector type. Applied voltage does not significantly influence supermolecular structure (crystallinity) and mechanical stiffness. There is correlation between changes in structure and proliferation of 3T3 cells as evidenced by in vitro study. Processing window of optimal scaffolds is relatively wide, however, variation of electrospinning parameters do not significantly affect their biological functionality.