Fabrication of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) Nanofibrous Membranes using Mushroom-Spinneret Needleless Electrospinning

Abstract

Mushroom-spinneret is an improved spinneret design for needleless electrospinning apparatus, which has a bowl-shaped base with a mushroom-shaped cover. The mushroom spinneret can overcome some limitations that is often associated with the needleless electrospinning technique, i.e., high excitation voltages, poor stability of free liquid, and difficulty of controlling the spatial motion of multiple jets. In this study, we fabricate polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) nanofibrous membranes using mushroom-spinneret needleless electrospinning and determine the effect of solution concentration and applied voltage on the fiber morphology and diameter. The solution concentration had significant effect on the fibers diameter. When the solution concentration was increased from 8 wt% to 12 wt%, the average fibers diameter increased from 0.99 μm to 1.31 μm and the fibers diameter distribution became wider. Moreover, the average fiber diameter decreased from 1.31 μm to 1.16 μm when the applied voltage was increased from 30 kV to 45 kV. The coefficient of variations (CV) for all membrane samples ranged from 0.12 - 0.26, indicated uniform fibers.

Polylactic Acid/Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) Co-Electrospun Fibrous Membrane as a Tunable Quercetin Delivery Platform for Diabetic Wounds

“…The use of electrospun fibers for drug delivery is widely investigated and one of the major challenges still remains to realize mats with tunable properties in order to have a more precise control of drug delivery and to focus on target applications [ 46 ]. Multi-spinneret electrospinning represents itself an excellent method to fabricate multiphase materials with specific and different characteristics such as degradation rate, mechanical properties, diffusivity and so on by utilizing the different properties of each component [ 47 ]. Du et al prepared a bicomponent mat for wound healing by using PVA to keep moist environment promoting cell adhesion and proliferation and PCL to maintain structural integrity [ 48 ].…”

A review on electrospun polyvinylpyrrolidone-derived carbon composite nanofibers as advanced functional materials for energy storage applications and beyond

“…The charged jet undergoes bending instability, gradually elongates in air with the evaporation of the solvent, and subsequently leads to the formation of randomly oriented solid nanobers, which are then collected on a grounded collector. 45,46 More details on the electrospinning principles and effect of different parameters can be found in the literature devoted to electrospinning as a process. [47][48][49] The adjustment of the electrospinning parameters depends on the solution properties and mainly on the type of chosen polymer template.…”

“…The smaller the concentration, the smaller the fiber diameter. 46 As too low concentration leads to low viscosity and electrospraying of spherical particles, sufficient concentration is important to get uniform fibers. 74 However, clogging has to be considered as at solution concentrations beyond the critical range, the polymer solution may clot and block the flow in the syringe.…”