Graphene Nanoplatelets-Based Textured Polymeric Fibrous Fabrics for the Next-Generation Devices

Abstract

Graphene is a 2D crystal composed of carbon atoms in a hexagonal arrangement. From their isolation, graphene nanoplatelets (nCD) have revolutionized material science due to their unique properties, and, nowadays, there are countless applications, including drug delivery, biosensors, energy storage, and tissue engineering. Within this work, nCD were combined with PLA, a widely used and clinically relevant thermoplastic polymer, to produce advanced composite texturized electrospun fabric for the next-generation devices. The electrospinning manufacturing process was set-up by virtue of a proper characterization of the composite raw material and its solution. From the morphological point of view, the nCD addition permitted the reduction of the fiber diameter while the texture allowed more aligned fibers. After that, mechanical features of fabrics were tested at RT and upon heating (40 °C, 69 °C), showing the reinforcement action of nCD mainly in the texturized mats at 40 °C. Finally, mats’ degradation in simulated physiological fluid was minimal up to 30 d, even if composite mats revealed excellent fluid-handling capability. Moreover, no toxic impurities and degradation products were pointed out during the incubation. This work gains insight on the effects of the combination of composite carbon-based material and texturized fibers to reach highly performing fabrics.

Electrospun Naringin-Loaded Fibers for Preventing Scar Formation during Wound Healing

“…NHDF and HSF cells were seeded at a density of 10 4 cells/well in Cellstar ® 96-well cells culture plates (Avantor VWR, Milan, Italy) to establish Biofiber biocompatibility. Biofiber electrospun matrix was tested for its cytotoxicity [ 25 , 26 ]; untreated cells were used as the positive control (CTR+) and cells treated with the phenol solution (Phenol Liquified 85% Re; Carlo Erba, Milan, Italy) were used as a negative cell viability control (CTR−).…”

Investigation on Electrospun and Solvent-Casted PCL-PLGA Blends Scaffolds Embedded with Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Tissue Engineering

“…In fact, the selected polymers had different molecular weights, and thus resulted in them not having superimposable viscosities in the selected solvent system when the same concentration was used. Viscosity studies ( Supplementary Material S1 ) permitted the identification of the critical entanglement concentration (CEC) [ 38 ] of the two polymers in DCM/DMF 75:25 solvent system, 7.47% w / v for PCL and 6.70% w / v for PLGA. Several electrospinning trials with polymer solutions having concentrations above the CEC were performed to determine the optimal polymer concentration and electrospinning parameters.…”