Expanding the Repertoire of Electrospinning: New and Emerging Biopolymers, Techniques, and Applications

Abstract

Electrospinning has emerged as a versatile and accessible technology for fabricating polymer fibers, particularly for biological applications. Natural polymers or biopolymers (including synthetically derivatized natural polymers) represent a promising alternative to synthetic polymers, as materials for electrospinning. Many biopolymers are obtained from abundant renewable sources, are biodegradable, and possess inherent biological functions. This review surveys recent literature reporting new fibers produced from emerging biopolymers, highlighting recent developments in the use of sulfated polymers (including carrageenans and glycosaminoglycans), tannin derivatives (condensed and hydrolyzed tannins, tannic acid), modified collagen, and extracellular matrix extracts. The proposed advantages of these biopolymer-based fibers, focusing on their biomedical applications, are also discussed to highlight the use of new and emerging biopolymers (or new modifications to well-established ones) to enhance or achieve new properties for electrospun fiber materials.

Electrospun nanofibers for bone regeneration: from biomimetic composition, structure to function

“…51 For this reason, nanofibers are highly desirable to fully play similar physiological and biochemical roles to those acted by the ECM. 52 In addition, electrospinning, as an advanced processing technology, can be employed to fabricate a variety of nanofibrous scaffolds with different components, including natural or synthetic polymers, inorganic ceramics and composites. 14 More importantly, the facile tunability for architecture and easy incorporation of bioactive compounds make it accessible to endow electrospun nanofibers with more biofunctionabilities, such as surface mineralization, antimicrobial, vasotropic, and immunoregulatory properties.…”

Global Trends in Natural Biopolymers in the 21st Century: A Scientometric Review

“…Due to their rich functions, natural biopolymers have derived many valuable products by studying their functions. Electrospinning, resulting from the processing of natural biopolymer materials, can be used as porous fibrous materials for tissue engineering and other biomedical applications ( Madruga and Kipper, 2022 ); glycosaminoglycans, the main components of extracellular matrix in animal tissues, are formed by gel-like matrix, widely used in biomedicine as an anticoagulant, anti-tumor, and anti-inflammatory, and wound healing ( Liu et al, 2002 ; Mizumoto and Sugahara, 2013 ; Zhou et al, 2016 ); in electrical stimulation–based bioelectronic devices, natural biopolymer chitosan and carbon nanomaterials materials or conductive polymers can be mixed to form highly conductive composites ( Sadeghi et al, 2019 ); the polyglycolide non-woven fabric-fibrin glue composite matrix formed based on polyethylene glycol has excellent skin closure ability, and it is helpful for biological regeneration of tissues and has been applied in the medical field ( Terasaka et al, 2006 ). In this field, some derivatives are limited by problems such as insolubility in water, fast depolymerization in the human body, and weak antibacterial properties.…”

Electrospun hybrid nanofibers: Fabrication, characterization, and biomedical applications

“…Therefore, adjusting these parameters is essential to achieve desired nanofibers. The main effective parameters in the electrospinning process include: 1) physicochemical properties of the system (nature of the polymer, solution viscosity, conductivity, and surface tension) ( Madruga and Kipper, 2022 ), 2) process parameters (voltage, receiving distance, and flow rate) ( Zhang et al, 2022b ), and 3) environmental factors (temperature and humidity) ( Wang et al, 2021b ). The mentioned parameters’ effects are presented in Table 1 .…”