Advances in Functional Polymer Nanofibers: From Spinning Fabrication Techniques to Recent Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Functional polymeric micro-/nanofibers have emerged as promising materials for the construction of structures potentially useful in biomedical fields. Among all kinds of technologies to produce polymer fibers, spinning methods have gained considerable attention. Herein, we provide a recent review on advances in the design of micro-and nanofibrous platforms via spinning techniques for biomedical applications. Specifically, we emphasize electrospinning, solution blow spinning, centrifugal spinning, and microfluidic spinning approaches. We first introduce the fundamentals of these spinning methods and then highlight the potential biomedical applications of such micro-and nanostructured fibers for drug delivery, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and sensing/biosensing. Finally, we outline the current challenges and future perspectives of spinning techniques for the practical applications of polymer fibers in the biomedical field.

Antibacterial Porous Coaxial Drug-Carrying Nanofibers for Sustained Drug-Releasing Applications

“…The drug release behavior of drug-loaded nanofibers is affected by the morphology of the nanofibers [ 15 ]. A promising drug release system should not only meet the drug release capacity but also be able to control the drug release rate [ 13 ]. The drug release profile of the nanofibers in vitro was tested for 14 days ( Figure 8 ).…”

“…The experiment’s results showed that the release rate of TCH (3 wt%)/PLLA (10 wt%) uniaxial blended nanofibers was 30% in the first 8 h, while the release rate of coaxial TCH (10 wt%)/PLLA (10 wt%) fibers was only 22.9% after 144 h. The core-shell nanofibers inhibited the initial release and promoted the continuous release of the drugs [ 12 ]. Compared with uniaxial electrospinning, coaxial nanofibers store and control the release of drugs, protect the biological activity of the drugs from the environment, achieve more lasting drug release, and have a better therapeutic effect [ 9 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. In the process of coaxial electrospinning, changing the shell layer flow rate, the shell solution concentration, and the core layer flow rate can produce shell layers of different thicknesses and thus control the release rate [ 14 , 18 ].…”

Tailoring the Surface Properties of Micro/Nanofibers Using 0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D Nanostructures: A Review on Post‐Modification Methods

“…In contrast, the bottom‐up approaches involve the fibrous structures being assembled atom by atom or molecule by molecule via covalent or supramolecular interactions, as drawing, [ 49 ] template synthesis, [ 50 ] self‐assembly, [ 51 ] phase separation, [ 52 ] and spinning process. [ 9,53 ] Over the last years, spinning techniques such as electrospinning [ 4,10,54 ] and solution blow spinning [ 55–57 ] have attracted great interest due to their simplicity, versatility in terms of composition and architecture of fibers, and scale‐up potential. In this section, we provide an in‐depth discussion on the abovementioned nanofiber spinning fabrication techniques.…”

“…[ 4,5 ] Polymeric nanofibrous mats have emerged as outstanding nanomaterials due to the properties intrinsically associated with polymer fibrous network including flexibility, high surface area‐to‐volume ratio, lightweight, malleability, and stretchability. [ 6–9 ] More recently, inorganic micro/nanofibers or the combination of them with distinct materials have been proposed as a new source of non‐conventional polymeric fibrous network. [ 10–13 ] Thus, similarly to conventional polymeric micro‐/nanofibrous mats, micro‐/nanofibrous composites mats possess a high surface area that can be combined to interesting functionalities as catalytic and electrical properties, customized porosity, and mechanical resistance, allowing their applications as adsorbent and photocatalysts, sensors, batteries, and capacitors.…”

Parametric Finite Element Model and Mechanical Characterisation of Electrospun Materials for Biomedical Applications

“…Electrospun materials have unique properties, making them excellent candidates for biomedical applications such as tissue engineering [1][2][3], wound dressings [4][5][6][7][8] and drug delivery vehicles [9,10]. The large surface-to-volume ratio and high porosity combined with small pore sizes improve breathability, impenetrability to bacteria and contamination, as well as fluid absorptivity, which, combined with the incorporation of medicinal substances, enables the development of active wound dressing, accelerating the healing process [11,12].…”