Surface morphology and cell viability of samarium (III) oxide/chromium (III) oxide/graphene oxide/polycaprolactone targeting wound dressing

Abstract

Combinations of metal and lanthanide oxides have been done through casted films for potential medical applications. In this regard, samarium (III) oxide/chromium (III) oxide/graphene oxide (GO)/polycaprolactone (PCL) based films nano-composites (NCs) were fabricated, pointing their utilization as a biological scaffold for wound dressing purposes. Also, samarium (III) oxide and chromium (III) oxide have been merged as promising optical constituents due to their unique optical behavior. The structural and compositional examination of the studied NCs was executed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The Sm2O3/Cr2O3/GO/PCL NC exhibits a surface with a lower roughness degree owing to the presence of GO. Cr2O3 shows size reduction upon GO insertion to reach 1.2 μm as the average grain size, whilst Sm2O3 records an average grain size of less than 1 μm. As well, the polymeric nano-compositions exhibit variation in contact angle values that hit 29.76° ± 3.52° for Sm2O3/PCL, and 48.62° ± 1.37° for Sm2O3/Cr2O3/GO/PCL as the second lowest contact angle. The optical behavior contributes to absorption edge relocation along the x-axis from 1.7 eV for pure PCL, to 2.65 eV for Sm2O3/Cr2O3/GO/PCL. Regarding biological responses, the cell exposed to 2.5 μg/mL of Sm2O3/Cr2O3/GO/PCL shows cell viability of 119.31%, while 5 μg/mL hits 99.6%. Additionally, the resulting cell attachment micrographs show layers of fibroblast tissue, besides the proliferation and growth of cultivated cells. Thus, the Sm2O3/Cr2O3/GO/PCL scaffold provides 3D proliferation of fibroblast cells endorsing the wound healing process.