The Development and Bio-applications of Multifluid Electrospinning

Abstract

Electrospinning is a potent "top-down" nanofabrication method and has been explored by many researchers in recent decades because it is an efficient, versatile, simple, and low-cost route to prepare nanofibers. Nanofiber membranes generated by electrospinning have been used in various fields including tissue engineering, wound dressing, biosensing, theranostics, and functional textiles. Here we summarize the development of multifluid electrospinning processes, including coaxial, Janus and triaxial electrospinning, and the applications of these techniques. Complex nanostructures prepared by multifluid electrospinning are considered. The key parameters that affect the electrospinning process are introduced, and a discussion of both equipment and solution parameters is presented.

Core–Shell Eudragit S100 Nanofibers Prepared via Triaxial Electrospinning to Provide a Colon-Targeted Extended Drug Release

“…When the three-layer working fluids are all electrospinnable, the tri-fluid process is a typical triaxial electrospinning, and the products should be tri-layer core–shell fibers [ 68 ]. However, when the outer layer fluid is a pure solvent for lubricating the working process for a high-quality product, the nano products are double-layer core–shell fibers, and the tri-fluid process is a modified triaxial electrospinning [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. The essential meaning is that the outer solvent provides air–solvent and solvent–polymer solution interfaces, instead of a previous air–polymer solution interface, and thus the “dynamic atomization” process is completely modified.…”

“…The commercial pH-sensitive copolymer Eudragit S100 (ES100), which has a pH-dependent solubility [ 42 ], was exploited as the polymeric carrier and also the filament-forming matrix. A modified triaxial electrospinning [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ] was developed to create the core–shell ES100 nanofibers, in which a drug-free shell layer of ES100 is intentionally coated on a composite aspirin-ES100 core. The monolithic composite nanofibers (MCFs) with aspirin homogeneously distributed all over the ES100 matrix were prepared using a traditional blended electrospinning and were exploited as control.…”

Electrospun Multiple-Chamber Nanostructure and Its Potential Self-Healing Applications

“…To ensure that PAN perfectly encapsulates the two components of the healing agent, the appropriate parameter settings [ 42 ] were applied to produce electrospun nanofiber with a uniform diameter, certain directionality, and smooth surface morphologies. Yu’s research on the relationship between Taylor cone, a straight fluid jet, and unstable regions provides a clear process–property relationship to study the interaction between energy and fluid [ 43 , 44 ]. In this study, two fibers—one monolithic and one triaxial—were prepared.…”

Energy-Saving Electrospinning with a Concentric Teflon-Core Rod Spinneret to Create Medicated Nanofibers

“…The second direction of developments in electrospinning involves deepening the knowledge about the electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) of working fluids, which is centered around the mechanism of the single-step but “extremely complex” process [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Most issues in electrospinning have a deep relationship with interface-based engineering considerations [ 23 ], such as (1) the contact surface between a fluid and its spinneret that guides the former into the electrical field; (2) the dynamic interface between the working fluid and the environment; (3) fluid–fluid interfacial interactions during a multiple-fluid electrospinning process; and (4) the escape of the solvent from a fluid and the related solidification mechanisms [ 24 ]. Although several modified coaxial and triaxial electrospinning processes have been reported based on adjusting the air-fluid contact formats, these processes generally aim to optimize the preparation conditions by employing an additional solvent as a separate working fluid [ 25 , 26 ].…”