Directional Transportation in a Self-Pumping Dressing Based on a Melt Electrospinning Hydrophobic Mesh

Abstract

Self-pumping wound dressings with directional water transport ability have been widely studied for their function of directional extraction of excessive biofluid from wounds while keeping the wound in a moderately humid environment to realize rapid wound healing. However, the existing solutions have not paid close attention to the fabrication of a nonirritating hydrophobic layer facing the wounds, which may cause irritation to wounds and thereby further worsen inflammation. Herein, a flexible and elastic thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) hydrophobic microfiber mesh (TPU-HMM) produced by melt electrospinning (MES) is reported. The TPU-HMM was compounded to a hydrophilic nanofiber membrane, which was fabricated by blending with polyamide 6 and poly­(ethylene glycol) (PA6-PEG) to form a composite self-pumping dressing, for which the breakthrough pressure in a reverse direction was 12.8 times than that in a positive direction and the forward water transmission rate was increased by 700%. It shows good directional water transport ability and is expected to absorb excessive biofluid of the wounds. This solvent-free and easy-process TPU-HMM provides a new strategy for the development of functional self-pumping textiles, and the solvent-free fabrication method for fibers, which eliminates the potential toxicity brought by solvent residues, offers more possibilities for its applications in biomedicine.

Electrospinning: The Technique and Applications

“…In comparison to electrospinning from a polymer solution, despite the benefits afforded by melt electrospinning, the technology has not achieved more popularity and has not been frequently employed. This is mostly owing to the high viscosity, high process temperatures, and the inability to create nanometer-sized fibers [64][65][66][67][68][69][70].…”

“…The rate and timing of drug release may be controlled by changing the fiber structure to promote effective wound healing. As a result, electrospun nanofibers have a lot of potential for developing improved bioactive wound dressings [26,41,47,49,53,54,66,77,78,98,108,110,111].…”

High-performance multifunctional electrospun fibrous air filter for personal protection: A review

“…The purpose of water vapor transmission system is to achieve efficient directional transmission of water droplet and vapor, thus avoid the rising air resistance and wet–sticky feeling caused by exhaled water vapor to realize comfortable use [164] . Constructing hydrophobic/hydrophilic gradient structure (i.e., Janus membrane) is an effective method to realize directional water droplet or vapor transport, which has been widely used in wound dressing, protective clothing, oil–water separation and so on [165] , [166] , [167] , [168] . Water vapor will spontaneously transfer from hydrophobic surface to hydrophilic surface due to different wettabilities [169] .…”

A Trilayered Composite Fabric with Directional Water Transport and Resistance to Blood Penetration for Medical Protective Clothing

“…On the one hand, though asymmetric wettability of the fabric is the basis for directional water transport, the hydrophobic layer close to the skin is the crux to defending against external liquids. , However, little attention has been paid to hydrophobicity-induced directional liquid transport in the fabric. The poor ability of liquid regulation of the fabric may lead to an unpleasant wearing experience, reduced working productivity, and even a threat to physical health.…”