Comparison of Traditional and Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning in Fabricating Nanofibrous Drug Delivery Systems

Abstract

We investigated nozzleless ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) as means to generate nanofibrous drug delivery systems (DDSs) for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Traditional electrospinning (TES) equipped with a conventional spinneret was used as a reference method. High-molecular polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan were used as carrier polymers and theophylline anhydrate as a water-soluble model drug. The nanofibers were electrospun with the diluted mixture (7:3) of aqueous acetic acid (90% v/v) and formic acid solution (90% v/v) (with a total solid content of 3% w/v). The fiber diameter and morphology of the nanofibrous DDSs were modulated by varying ultrasonic parameters in the USES process (i.e., frequency, pulse repetition frequency and cycles per pulse). We found that the USES technology produced nanofibers with higher fiber diameter (402 ± 127 nm) than TES (77 ± 21 nm). An increase of a burst count in USES increased the fiber diameter (555 ± 265 nm) and the variation in fiber size. The slight-to-moderate changes in a solid state (crystallinity) were detected when compared the nanofibers generated by TES and USES. In conclusion, USES provides a promising alternative for aqueous-based fabrication of nanofibrous DDSs for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.

An overview on electrospinning and its advancement toward hard and soft tissue engineering applications

“…formation of ultrasound fountain relative to applied electric field, generation of capillary waves by ultrasound, cavitation, acoustic streaming, and thermal effects [43]. Similarly, Hakkarainen et al [44] have investigated fabrication of nanofibers using USES and compared with the one synthesized using the traditional electrospinning method for drug delivery applications. The nanofiber generated using USES had higher fiber diameter of 402 ± 127 nm over 77 ± 21 nm fiber synthesized using traditional method.…”

Scale-up of Electrospinning: Market Overview of Products and Devices for Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Purposes

“…A comparative study of traditional electrospinning (TES) with ultrasound enhanced electrospinning (USES) has been conducted for the formulation of a nanofiber drug delivery system using polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan as carrier polymers and theophylline anhydrate as a water-soluble model drug. The results showed that NFs produced by USES were amorphous compared to those produced by TES [ 92 ]. A very promising novel application of the free-surface method has been manipulated by combining the alternating current electrospinning (ACES)—instead of using direct current—with centrifugal force, and a higher throughput has been obtained [ 93 ].…”

The Role of Acoustic Streaming in Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning - a FEM Simulation Study

“…Now we predict the acoustic streaming inside the polymer solution. Different ultrasound driving parameters affect the produced fibers' diameter in USES [5] and as such, we expect that acoustic streaming could be one of the phenomena related to this.…”