Emulsion electrospinning is a versatile technique used to create tunable fibrous meshes for applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Emulsion electrospinning provides a tunable system for the development of porous scaffolds for controlled, localized drug delivery in tissue engineering applications. This study aimed to elucidate the role of model drug interactions with emulsion chemistry on loading and release rates from fibers with controlled fiber diameter and fiber volume fraction. Nile Red and Rhodamine B were used as model drugs and encapsulation efficiency and release rates were determined from poly(caprolactone) (PCL) electrospun fibers spun either with no surfactant (Span 80), surfactant, or water‐in‐oil emulsions. Drug loading efficiency and release rates were modulated by both surfactant and aqueous internal phase in the emulsions as a function of drug molecule hydrophobicity. Overall, these results demonstrate the role of intermolecular interactions and drug phase solubility on the release from emulsion electrospun fibers and highlight the need to independently control these parameters when designing fibers for use as tunable drug delivery systems.

Emulsion electrospinning is a versatile technique to generate nonwoven fibrous meshes. Using surfactants to reduce surface tension at the needle tip and interfacial tension between continuous and dispersed phases in an emulsion modifies final fiber characteristics critical for performance in drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. This study aimed to investigate the role of nonionic surfactant location and modulation of surface and interfacial tension during the electrospinning process on resulting fiber properties. Bulk visual analysis of emulsion stability, fiber morphology and diameter, and wettability of final mesh was assessed. Polyglycerol polyricenoleate (PGPR) demonstrated highest emulsion stability. All other surfactants decreased fiber diameter. Mesh wettability increased with surfactant addition and was further modulated in emulsions. Overall, results demonstrated that surfactant molecular properties including hydrophobic–lipophilic balance (HLB) value and partition coefficient (logP) can be used as predictors to determine surfactant location and dictate fiber properties in single phase and emulsion electrospinning systems.

Emulsion electrospinning represents a tunable system for the fabrication of porous scaffolds for controlled, localized drug delivery in tissue engineering applications. This study aimed to elucidate the role of model drug interactions with emulsion chemistry on loading and release rates from fibers with controlled fiber diameter and fiber volume fraction. Nile Red and Rhodamine B were used as model drugs and encapsulation efficiency and release rates were determined from poly(caprolactone) (PCL) electrospun fibers spun either with no surfactant (Span 80), surfactant, or water-in-oil emulsions. Drug loading efficiency and release rates were modulated by both surfactant and aqueous internal phase in the emulsions as a function of drug molecule hydrophobicity. Overall, these results demonstrate the role of intermolecular interactions and drug phase solubility on the release from emulsion electrospun fibers and highlight the need to independently control these parameters when designing fibers for use as tunable drug delivery systems.