Needleless Electrospinning of a Chitosan Lactate Aqueous Solution: Influence of Solution Composition and Spinning Parameters

Daria N Poshina,Natalia M Zabivalova,Ilya V Serov,Igor A Khadyko,Arina A Sukhova,Yury A Skorik

doi:10.3390/technologies8010002

Abstract

The biological activity of chitosan determines its broad application as a biopolymer for non-woven wound dressings fabricated by electrospinning. The electrospinning process is affected by a large number of different factors that complicate its optimization. In the present work, the electrospinning of chitosan lactate was carried out using a needleless technique from water solutions of different compositions. Surface response methodology was used to evaluate the effects of the concentration of chitosan, polyethylene oxide, and ethanol on solution properties, such as viscosity, surface tension, and conductivity, as well as the process characteristics and fiber quality. The viscosity of the spinning solution is determined by the polymer concentration as well as by the interpolymer interactions. The addition of ethanol to the spinning solutions effectively decreases the solution surface tension and conductivity, while increasing the volatility of the solvent, to provide more intense fiber spinning. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the chitosan lactate fibers were obtained without defects and with a narrow thickness distribution. The spinning parameters, voltage, distance between electrodes, and rotation speed of the spinning electrode had insignificant influences on the fiber diameter during needleless electrospinning.

Highlights

Electrospun chitosan membranes have wide applications in biomedicine as wound dressings and in tissue regeneration and drug delivery [1,2,3,4] because of the biocompatibility, biodegradability, and biological activity of chitosan [5,6,7]
We report a “green” method that overcomes the usually poor spinning ability of chitosan lactate water solutions and allows needleless electrospinning of chitosan lactate fibers from an aqueous solution
The molecular weight (MW) and the degree of deacetylation (DD) were determined after neutralization of the chitosan lactate solution with NaOH followed by purification by dialysis and lyophilization

Summary

Introduction

Electrospun chitosan membranes have wide applications in biomedicine as wound dressings and in tissue regeneration and drug delivery [1,2,3,4] because of the biocompatibility, biodegradability, and biological activity of chitosan [5,6,7]. Electrospinning of chitosan remains difficult: Only strongly acidic solutions can be spun effectively, and guest polymers (most frequently polyethylene oxide (PEO) or polyvinyl alcohol) must be used for initialization of the electrospinning process. Aqueous chitosan solutions are less stable than acidic ones and require greater initial amounts of PEO [8]. The process of electrospinning is influenced by many different factors, including the properties of the polymer solution, the parameters of the electrospinning process, and the environmental conditions [9]. The main properties of solutions that determine their spinning ability and affect the fiber quality are the viscosity, surface tension, and conductivity, and the solvent vapor volatility [10].

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