Comparative Analysis of Electrospun Uniaxial and Coaxial Nanofibers Properties

Abstract

Coaxial electrospinning, which is a modified electrospinning technique involving an arrangement of multiple solution feed systems, enable the production of multilayered nanofibers. In this study, multilayered nanofibers of polyamide 6 (core) / polycaprolactone (shell) containing silver nanoparticles in the core were produced by coaxial electrospinning method. UV-Visible spectra showed that the size of nanoparticles were about 10 nm and the content of nanoparticles were observed to be proportional to the precursor content added to the solvent. The obtained multilayered nanofibers were characterized in terms of morphology, chemical structure, and silver release properties. The multilayered nanofiber structure was confirmed by the selective dissolution and removal of shell layer. The increase in the PCL content of the multilayered nanofibers with the increase in the flow rate of the shell solution was confirmed by FTIR. The silver release profiles of the nanofibers were observed to be dependent on the nanofiber configuration, and silver content. Shell thickness was also an important parameter affecting the silver release properties for multilayered nanofibers.