Abstract
Electrospinning is a widely investigated and used technique for creating nano and microfibres which has a wide range of medical and pharmaceutical applications. For cell culturing and tissue engineering, it is a greatly investigated method because it resembles the extracellular matrix. Changing the electrospinning parameters we affect the properties of these systems to fine-tune it for our needs. To create a high porosity fibrous mesh for culturing different cells in a suitable three-dimensional way, we need to step forward from conventional electrospinning.In this paper, we are presenting a strategy involving the addition of inorganic salts to electrospinning solution to reproducibly synthesize nano and microfibrous fluffy 3D structures from polysuccinimide (a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer). Effect of different concentrations of LiCl, MgCl2 and CaCl2 on fibre properties are presented. Results show that the 3D structured fibrous meshes were produced in the presence of LiCl, MgCl2 or CaCl2 in a narrow concentration range. To understand the effect of salt on the resulting meshes characterization of the ion-ion and ion-solvent interactions were carried out using vibration spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation.
Highlights
Ever since Formhals introduced the idea of electrospinning to the scientific community it has been one of the most investigated and used methods for the preparation of nano- and microfibres in research [1]
After creating the fibre the difference is not observable in the spectrum anymore because of the evaporation of the solvent, only the fibre diameter referred for the presence of the salt. It is already known from the literature that the addition of salts to a polymer solution used in electrospinning might cause real 3D collection of fibres resulting in loose and fluffy meshes
FTIR and computational investigation showed that there is a strong interaction between their respective ionic components and DMF, new peaks appeared on the spectra depending on the strength of the interaction
Summary
Ever since Formhals introduced the idea of electrospinning to the scientific community it has been one of the most investigated and used methods for the preparation of nano- and microfibres in research [1]. In basic solvent-based electrospinning, a polymer solution is fed through a metal needle on high DC voltage and a grounded metal collector is placed in front of it. If the developing electric field strength is strong enough, a thin polymer jet emerges and travels in the direction of the collector, and in a whipping movement it is elongated, thinned and its solvent evaporates. At the end of the process, one can obtain a web of randomly oriented fibres [2]. By using fast rotating mandrel collector or 3D printed collectors, fibres with different orientations or web morphologies could be prepared as well [3], [4]. There is a wide variety of applications of such fibrous materials ranging from industrial filters, through energy materials to drug delivery and biomedical implants [5]–[8]
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