Comparative Characterization of Melt Electrospun Fibers and Films Based on PLA‐PHB Blends: Diffusion, Drug Release, and Structural Features

Abstract

Comparative structural‐dynamic characterization of the biopolyester blends based on poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) and poly‐L‐lactide (PLA) [PHB/PLA] is performed. The melt electrospun fibers and molded films with the same compositions (1/0, 1/9, 3/7) but obtained by two different fabrication ways are explored by combination of structural and dynamic methods. The structural‐dynamic features such as segmental mobility (by spin‐probe ESR technique), thermophysical transitions (by DSC), and surface morphology (by SEM) are applied to elucidate the distinctive diffusion features as the essential constituent of drug release. The ultrathin electrospun fibers and molded films loaded by dipyridamole (DPD), as a modeling drug, shows the different structural behavior including crystallinity and the diversity in diffusion coefficients and the drug release profiles. To emphasize the special transport phenomena in nano‐sized drug vehicles, the diffusivity modeling is performed and further the drug diffusion coefficients in the ultrathin fibers and the macroscopic films are compared.

Aggressive Impacts Affecting the Biodegradable Ultrathin Fibers Based on Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate), Polylactide and Their Blends: Water Sorption, Hydrolysis and Ozonolysis

“…Hence, higher accessibility of amorphous areas to ozone should occur. As shown before for the fibrillar and plane film composites of PHB-PLA [55], in the range of component ratio 30:70-70:30, their crystallinity was decreased, which reflected an enhancement in segmental dynamics-namely, at those polymer ratios, the time correlation values have a flat minimum (see Figure 4 in [47]). Besides, in this PHB concentration interval, the diffusivity of the low-molecular-weight compound-in particular, the modeling drug, dipyridamole-was increased, which elucidated the mechanism of controlled release in PHB-PLA electrospun fibers [37].…”

Biodegradable Polylactide–Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate) Compositions Obtained via Blending under Shear Deformations and Electrospinning: Characterization and Environmental Application

“…Recently, Liu, Cao, Iordanskii et al [33] have reported the production and characterization of PHA-PHB spun fibers produced by melt electrospinning. In the following paper of the same authors [34], the comparison of melt electrospun PHB-PLA fibers and molded films with analogous compositions has been presented to elucidate the diffusivity impact on drug release features. In addition to the usage of electrospun fibers in biomedicine as well as at development of innovative packaging materials, they are starting to be actively used for the development of innovative absorbents for pollutants removing [35].…”

Innovative solutions and challenges to increase the use of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) in food packaging and disposables

“…The latter process, therefore, opens up the incorporation thermolabile substances into electrospun biopolymer films, including natural extracts, for the development of active packaging systems [7,72,110]. In this new trend, PHB has begun to have a greater impact, both individually and with polymer mixtures such as PLA, polyanilines, or lignins [64,101,108,[111][112][113]. In particular, the combination of PLA and PHB biopolyesters, since both are bio-based thermoplastic polyesters, results very promising for packaging and other short-term applications [64,101].…”