Fabrication and Characterisation of Stimuli Responsive Piezoelectric PVDF and Hydroxyapatite-Filled PVDF Fibrous Membranes.

Biranche Tandon,Sarah Cartmell,Prashant Kamble,Jonny Blaker,Richard Olsson

doi:10.3390/molecules24101903

Biranche Tandon, Sarah Cartmell + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24101903

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Abstract

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) has attracted interest from the biomaterials community owing to its stimuli responsive piezoelectric property and promising results for application in the field of tissue engineering. Here, solution blow spinning and electrospinning were employed to fabricate PVDF fibres and the variation in resultant fibre properties assessed. The proportion of piezoelectric β-phase in the solution blow spun fibres was higher than electrospun fibres. Fibre production rate was circa three times higher for solution blow spinning compared to electrospinning for the conditions explored. However, the solution blow spinning method resulted in higher fibre variability between fabricated batches. Fibrous membranes are capable of generating different cellular response depending on fibre diameter. For this reason, electrospun fibres with micron and sub-micron diameters were fabricated, along with successful inclusion of hydroxyapatite particles to fabricate stimuli responsive bioactive fibres.

Highlights

Stimuli responsive polymers are a class of materials capable of responding to one or more stimuli such as mechanical, photo, electrical, pH, electrochemical gradients, enzymes and receptors [1,2]
Mats consisting of micron fibres was significantly higher than those of fibre mats formed of sub-micron fibres, and Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)
Milleret et al observed a similar trend of average roughness for sub-micron and fibres was significantly higher than those of fibre mats formed of sub-micron fibres, and films micron fibre-based membranes [70]

Summary

Introduction

Stimuli responsive polymers are a class of materials capable of responding to one or more stimuli such as mechanical, photo, electrical (physical stimuli), pH, electrochemical gradients (chemical stimuli), enzymes and receptors (biological stimuli) [1,2]. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers can exhibit piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and ferroelectricity, and are classified as stimuli responsive polymers. These polymers have been utilised alone or as matrices in composites and layered structures to fabricate stimuli responsive systems [4,5,6]. Tissue engineering scaffolds fabricated using these materials are capable of generating electrical stimuli in response to mechanical deformation, which affect cellular differentiation [7,8,9,10]. The incorporation of particles of hydroxyapatite (HA), itself a piezoelectric material, into polymer and ceramic matrices has been shown to impart bioactive properties, improve bone forming ability and apatite formation [11,12,13,14]

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