Fabrication of Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofibers for the Delivery of Biologically Active Molecules

Abstract

Nanofibers attract attention due to the possibility of varying their properties over a wide range when changing the technical parameters of their production. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers are one of the most important considerations, not only because of their nano size, which helps to reduce device size, but also because of the benefits of biosafety, biodegradability and their abundant raw materials. Particular attention is drawn to the possibility of electrospinning fibers from PVA solutions in a mixture of solvents. This makes it possible to load PVA fibers with various active molecules, including those that do not dissolve in water. This study focuses on the fabrication of electrospun PVA nanofibers from an aqueous PVA-acetic acid solution. The addition of acetic acid to the electrospinning process had no effect on the chemical nature of the resulting nanofiber system, however significantly improved its quality. The electrospun PVA nanofiber diameter was substantially reduced from 170 ± 28 nm to 114 ± 31 nm by the addition of 35 percent (w/w) acetic acid in the aqueous solution of PVA. The mechanical strength, in particular, was observed to increase as the acetic acid concentration in the electrospinning solution increased.