Electrospinning in water and in situ crosslinking of hyaluronic acid / cyclodextrin nanofibers: Towards wound dressing with controlled drug release

Emerging frontiers in drug release control by core-shell nanofibers: a review

In recent years, core-shell (CS) nanofiber has widely been used as a carrier for controlled drug release. This outstanding attention toward CS nanofiber is mainly due to its tremendous significance in controllable drug release in specific locations. The major advantage of CS nanofibers is forming a highly porous mesh, boosting its performance for many applications, due to its large surface-to-volume ratio. This inherently high ratio has prompted electrospun fibers to be considered one of the best drug-delivery-systems available, with the capacity to enhance properties such as cell attachment, drug loading, and mass transfer. Using electrospun fibers as CS nanofibers to incorporate different cargos such as antibiotics, anticancer agents, proteins, DNA, RNA, living cells, and diverse growth factors would considerably satisfy the need for a universal carrier in the field of nanotechnology. In addition to their high surface area, other benefit included in these nanofibers is the ability to trap drugs, easily controlled morphology, and their biomimetic characteristics. In this review, by taking the best advantages of the preparation and uses of CS nanofibers, a novel work in the domain of the controlled drug delivery by nanofiber-based scaffolds is presented.

Development of polyvinyl alcohol/β-cyclodextrin antimicrobial nanofibers for fresh mushroom packaging

Under the optimal conditions, a crosslinked electrospun polyvinyl alcohol/cinnamon essential oil/β-cyclodextrin (CPVA-CEO-β-CD) nanofibrous films for sustained release of antimicrobials were successfully prepared. Cinnamon essential oil (CEO) can be sustainably released due to CPVA-CEO-β-CD nanofibers complex delivery systems. The chemical crosslinking and physical welding achieved simultaneously by glutaraldehyde atomization fumigation, making fibers more suitable for fresh food packaging. Nanofibrous films were characterized in terms of SEM, ATR-FTIR, DSC, water contact angle analysis and antibacterial trials. ATR-FTIR and DSC data indicated that CEO was encapsulated in a β-CD cavity and they coexisted in PVA nanofibers. The water contact angle of the crosslinked PVA nanofibrous films increased with CEO and the values were always below 90°. Crosslinked nanofibers possessed fine properties in vitro antibacterial against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, CPVA/β-CD/CEO nanofibrous films delayed decay of mushroom during storage, indicating their potential implementation in active food packaging.

Electrospun Nanofiber Mats with Embedded Non-Sintered TiO2 for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs)

TiO2 is a semiconductor that is commonly used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). However, the necessity of sintering the TiO2 layer is usually problematic due to the desired temperatures of typically 500 °C in cells that are prepared on polymeric or textile electrodes. This is why textile-based DSSCs often use metal fibers or metallic woven fabrics as front electrodes on which the TiO2 is coated. Alternatively, several research groups investigate the possibilities to reduce the necessary sintering temperatures by chemical or other pre-treatments of the TiO2. Here, we report on a simple method to avoid the sintering step by using a nanofiber mat as a matrix embedding TiO2 nanoparticles. The TiO2 layer can be dyed with natural dyes, resulting in a similar bathochromic shift of the UV/Vis spectrum, as it is known from sintered TiO2 on glass substrates, which indicates an equivalent chemical bonding. Our results indicate a new possibility for producing textile-based DSSCs with TiO2, even on textile fabrics that are not high-temperature resistant.