Abstract
Nanofibrous materials produced by electrospinning processes have potential advantages in tissue engineering because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, biomimetic architecture, and excellent mechanical properties. The aim of the current work is to study the influence of the electron beam on the poly L-lactide acid/ carboxy-methyl starch/β-tricalcium phosphate (PLLA/CMS/β-TCP) composite nanofibers for potential applications as bone-tissue scaffolds. The composite nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning in the combination of 5% v/v carboxy-methyl starch (CMS) and 0.25 wt% of β-TCP with the PLLA as a matrix component. The composites nanofibers were exposed under 5, 30, and 100 kGy of irradiation dose. The electron-beam irradiation showed no morphological damage to the fibers, and slight reduction in the water-contact angle and mechanical strength at the higher-irradiation doses. The chain scission was found to be a dominant effect; the higher doses of electron-beam irradiation thus increased the in vitro degradation rate of the composite nanofibers. The chemical interaction due to irradiation was indicated by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum and thermal behavior was investigated by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The results showed that the electron-beam-induced poly L-lactide acid/carboxy-methyl starch/β-tricalcium phosphate (PLLA/CMS/β-TCP) composite nanofibers may have great potential for bone-tissue engineering.
Highlights
Nanofibers have acquired huge interest in the past few decades due their great properties that can be used in a wide range of applications
Carboxy-methyl starch was prepared from local sago starch. 10 g of sago starch was stirred in 300 mL isopropanol (Merck, GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany) with an addition to 30 wt.% NaOH in a reactor flask equipped with a reflux condenser and burette
The carboxy-methyl starch (CMS) solution was prepared at 10 wt% concentration and mix with PLLA in 5 % v/v of CMS content in PLLA. 0.25% of β-TCP powders were mixed in PLLA/CMS solution in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (0.2 wt%)
Summary
Nanofibers have acquired huge interest in the past few decades due their great properties that can be used in a wide range of applications. Nanofibers can provide great surface area over volume, high connected pores, and good mechanical properties [1,2,3,4]. Due to their unique properties, nanofibers have become potential candidates that can be used in various fields such as filtration, electronics, textile, tissue engineering, and drug-delivery systems [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. Either polymeric melt or the polymeric solution can Polymers 2020, 12, 1593; doi:10.3390/polym12071593 www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
