Biocompatible and antimicrobial elastomers with controlled hydrophilicity and degradation rate, as well as appropriate stiffness and elasticity, are interesting for biomedical applications, such as regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.
In this study, grafted gelatin with oligoaniline (GelOA) was synthesized and then mixed with Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Several scaffolds with different ratio of PVA/GelOA were electrospun to fabricate electroactive scaffolds. GelOA was characterized using Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); moreover, nanofiber properties were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses. Nanofibers diameter was decreased with aniline oligomer increment form 300 to 150 nm because of the hydrophobic nature of the aniline oligomer. Aniline oligomer electroactivity was studied using cyclic voltammetry, which exhibited two redox peaks at 0.4 and 0.6. Moreover, aniline oligomer enhancement resulted in melting point increasing from 220°C to 230°C because of the crystallinity increment. To assess the biocompatibility of nanofibers, cell viability and cell adhesion were tracked using mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs). It was revealed that the presence of aniline oligomer leads to enhancing the conductivity, thermal properties and lowering the degradation rate and drug release. Among of different scaffolds, sample with high content of GelOA shows better behavior in physical and biological properties. Accumulative drug releases under applied electrical field at 40 minutes showed that the drug release for stimulated condition is about 33% more than the unapplied electrical field one.
ABSTRACT:In this study, the heat-shrinkage property in polymer was induced by first compounding low-density polyethylene/poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) (LDPE/EVA) blends with various amounts of peroxide in a twin-screw extruder at about 130°C. The resulting granules were molded to shape and chemically crosslinked by compression molding. A process of heating-stretching-cooling was then performed on the samples while on a tensile machine. Shrinkability and effective parameters were also investigated using thermal mechanical analysis. The results showed that the gel fraction was higher for the sample of higher EVA content with the same amount of dicumyl peroxide (DCP). A decrease in the melting point and heat of fusion (⌬H f ), as determined from DSC, was observed with an increase in the DCP content. Studies on the heat shrinkability of the samples showed that samples stretched above the melting point had a higher shrinkage temperature than those stretched around the crystal transition temperature. The results showed that by increasing the peroxide content, the shrinkage temperature was decreased. These could be attributed to the formation of new spherulites as well as changes in the amount and the size of crystals. Furthermore, in samples elongated at 120°C (above the melting point), the rate of stretching had no effect on the shrinkage temperature. The results showed that the extent of strain had no effect on the temperature of shrinkage, but rather on the ultimate shrinkage value.
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