Preparation of porous electro-spun UPM fibers via photocrosslinking

Tuning Porosity and Functionality of Electrospun Rubber Nanofiber Mats by Photo-Crosslinking

The present work proposes a versatile and efficient method to fabricate rubber nanofiber membranes with a controlled morphology and tailored functionality, based on the application of photoinduced thiol-ene cross-linking reactions to electrospun mats. Besides preventing the polymer cold flow and freezing the structure obtained by electrospinning, the photocuring step finely controls the morphology of the nanofiber mats, in terms of the fiber diameter up to the nanometer range and of the membrane porosity. Nanofiber membranes are also made chemically resistant, while retaining their flexibility. Finally, the proposed approach allows imparting specific functionalities to the rubber nanofibers: the type and concentration of the functional groups can be precisely tuned by changing process parameters (i.e., thiol/ene stoichiometric ratio and irradiation dose). Active chemical groups that remain available on the surface of the nanofibers can be used for further material modifications, as here proven by two target reactions. This key result is also demonstrated with electrospun membranes embedded into a microfluidic chip, opening the way to advanced functional flexible devices.

Electrospinning and crosslinking of low-molecular-weight poly(trimethylene carbonate-co-(L)-lactide) as an elastomeric scaffold for vascular engineering

The growth of suitable tissue to replace natural blood vessels requires a degradable scaffold material that is processable into porous structures with appropriate mechanical and cell growth properties. This study investigates the fabrication of degradable, crosslinkable prepolymers of l-lactide-co-trimethylene carbonate into porous scaffolds by electrospinning. After crosslinking by γ-radiation, dimensionally stable scaffolds were obtained with up to 56% trimethylene carbonate incorporation. The fibrous mats showed Young's moduli closely matching human arteries (0.4-0.8MPa). Repeated cyclic extension yielded negligible change in mechanical properties, demonstrating the potential for use under dynamic physiological conditions. The scaffolds remained elastic and resilient at 30% strain after 84days of degradation in phosphate buffer, while the modulus and ultimate stress and strain progressively decreased. The electrospun mats are mechanically superior to solid films of the same materials. In vitro, human mesenchymal stem cells adhered to and readily proliferated on the three-dimensional fiber network, demonstrating that these polymers may find use in growing artificial blood vessels in vivo.

Producing Polymer Fibers by Electrospinning in Supercritical Fluids

Nanofibers have a wide range of applications, including filtration and biomedical engineering. Porous or hollow fibers with large surface-to-volume ratios are more popular in some fields than the common nanofibers. Porous nanofibers can be obtained through electrospinning with highly volatile solvents or through special treatment following electrospinning. A new process where electrospinning is conducted in supercritical or near-critical CO2to produce porous or hollow nanofibers has been summarized. In addition, a process entailing compressed N2-assisted electrospinning was attempted to produce PVP nanofibers in this work, but it was proved to be unsuccessful. Since the fiber morphologies are dependent on the phase behavior of organic solvents in supercritical fluids, ASPEN PLUS 2006 was used to simulate the phase equilibrium of the solvent-supercritical fluid system to explain why porous or hollow fibers can be obtained in compressed CO2, but not in compressed N2.