Biocomposite scaffolds based on electrospun poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) nanofibers and electrosprayed hydroxyapatite nanoparticles for bone tissue engineering applications

What Changes in Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) When Processed as Electrospun Nanofibers or Thermo-Compression Molded Film?

“…As can be noted on Figure 8, the maximum mass loss rate for PHB film occurred at 285 °C, while PHB-based fibrous material displayed lesser thermal stability with maximum mass loss rate at 262 °C. The values found are consistent with those found by Ramier et al 21 and could be attributed to the higher specific surface area of the fibrous structures which was more affected by heating. According to the aforecited authors, as the heating spread by conduction within the materials, the fibers characterized by a large surface area could reach the degradation temperature faster.…”

“…However, this result disagrees with other results found in the literature. When as-received PHB powder was compared with PHB-based fibrous material, the latter displayed values of melting temperature and enthalpy slightly higher than those corresponding to the powder precursor 21 . Such result was attributed to the orientation of Regarding the results found in the DSC study, one possible explanation for the apparent discrepancy with the previous results was given by Xu et al 9 .…”

“…Ramier et al 21 reported contact angle for PHB mat on the air side and on the collector side of 120 ± 4° and 103 ± 3° respectively. According to these authors, the decrease in contact angles for the fiber surface touching the collector could be related to a decrease in specific surface areas of the first fiber layer that flattened in contact with the aluminum collector.…”

Electrospinning and electrospraying techniques for designing novel antibacterial poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)/zinc oxide nanofibrous composites

“…Electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds exhibit highly porous structures with fiber diameters suitable to mimic the natural extracellular matrix, thus promoting cell attachment and proliferation [1][2][3][4]. Nonetheless, these morphological features entail a huge inconvenient, namely, the adhesion of pathogenic microorganisms [5][6][7].…”

“…Several strategies have been developed in order to overcome this problematic issue, being the most prominent the incorporation of organic compounds [8], and more recently, metallic nanoparticles [9][10][11][12] with well-recognized antimicrobial properties. Electrospun polymer composites containing these specific nanoparticles can exhibit several advantages compared to typical organic compound-loaded polymers, such as higher thermal stability, enhanced mechanical performance or biocompatibility, depending on the chemical nature of nanoparticles [1,2,[12][13][14][15].…”