PLA/PCL electrospun membranes of tailored fibres diameter as drug delivery systems

Abstract

The main electrospinning parameters, i.e., polymer concentration in the injectable solution, solvents used and their proportion, flow rate, voltage and distance to collector were herein systematically modified to analyse their particular influence in fibres diameter of electrospun membranes of poly(lactic acid), polycaprolactone and their mixture. As a result of this analysis, the procedures to obtain membranes of these polymers and blend with under-and above-micron-sized fibres were established, in which the solvents ratio (chloroform/methanol and dichloromethane/dimethylformamide) and voltage were found to play the major role. Moreover, the plausible differential effect of these fibres diameters (0.8 and 1.8 µm) in the controlled release of a molecule of interest was explored, using bovine serum albumin (BSA), proving that the most effective configuration for BSA release among those studied was the PLA-PCL combination in membranes of above-micron fibres diameter.

Effects of thermal annealing and solvent-induced crystallization on the structure and properties of poly(lactic acid) microfibres produced by high-speed electrospinning

“…Nonwoven technologies and products represent a notable portion of the packaging industry, the largest single market of polymers [25,26]. In addition, these materials with disordered fibre arrangement represent the main component of a wide range of applications, including filtration [27,28], absorbents [29,30], drug delivery [31][32][33] and tissue engineering [34,35] With respect to annealing of PLA nonwovens, heat resistance, tensile strength and modulus usually increase, while ductility reduces [36,37]. In our previous study, melt-blown PLA nonwoven mats were used as precursors for self-reinforced composite preparation [38].…”

“…Without the recrystallization step, the inherently mainly amorphous PLA microfibres could not fulfil their reinforcing role in the composite, as they fused at the elevated temperature of hot compaction. Another popular manufacturing method to obtain micro-or nanofibrous PLA mats is electrospinning (ES) [25,26,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]39]. Recently, high-speed electrospinning (HSES) technique has been developed to increase the productivity of this process [32,33,[40][41][42].…”

A mini review on the generation of crimped ultrathin fibers via electrospinning: Materials, strategies, and applications

“…This technique was invented back in 1934, when Anton Formhals spun fiber from cellulose acetate/acetone (ACE) solution. However, since the late 1990s until now, the consciousness in this technique has been growing, as evident from the increasing number of publications, due to its ability to form webs with unique properties (eg, high specific surface area, small fibers' diameter, flexibility, ease of functionality, excellent mechanical properties, good pore structures, extraordinary adjustability, low density, and so on). Therefore, it can be used in various areas such as tissue engineering, biomedical applications, sensors, antibacterial applications, catalysts, energy harvesting, self‐cleaning surfaces, food packaging, filtrations, and so on.…”

Effect of segment structures on the hydrolytic degradation behaviors of totally degradable poly(L‐lactic acid)‐based copolymers

“…Nowadays, biodegradable polymers have been used widely in medical application, such as bioresorbable sutures used for surgical operations, bone fixation implants, and cardiovascular stents. [1][2][3] In the past decades, poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), which derives from renewable resources such as corn and sugar beet, possesses a variety of desirable properties, including being biodegradable, biocompatible, outstanding mechanically strong, and so on. [4][5][6][7] So far, PLLA-based medical devices are used in the clinical applications including BioScrew ® , Bio-Anchor ® , and Absorb BVS ® .…”