Electrospining

Zarkoob et al. (1998, 2004) were the first to report on the electrospinning of silkworm silk and Nephila clavipes dragline protein. They used an HFIP solution of protein as the spinning dope. The resulting fibers had a wide distribution in diameter and the continuity during spinning could be significantly improved. 

In order to improve the properties and the spinnability, fibroin sometimes has been electrospun together with other natural or synthetic polymers (Jin et al., 2002 Park et al., 2004, 2006 Wang et al., 2004, 2006). For instance, Jin et al. (2002) developed an aqueous process for silk electrospinning in combination with PEO. More recently, Cao (2008) used PVA/Silk Fibroin (SF), Gelatin/SF, and Hydroxyapatite (HAP)/SF to produce double-layered (core-shell) nanofibers (mats) by coelectrospinning. 

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Kwon and coworkers prepared a series of nano- to microstmctured biodegradable PCLA porous fabrics by electrospinning. The nanoscale-fiber porous fabrics were electrospun with PCLA (1 1 mole ratio, approximately 0.3-1.2 mm in diameter) using l,l,l,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol as a solvent. 

Bedford, N.M. and Steckl, A.J. (2010) Photocatalytic self cleaning textile fibers by coaxial electrospinning. ACS Applied Materials ej Interfaces, 2, 2448-2455. 

Electroslag remelting, 23 255 Electroslurry process, 23 576 Electrospinning, 11 186 Electrospray ionization, liquid chromatography, 4 625 Electrospray ionization source, 15 654-658 Electrostatic atomization, in spray coating, 7 72-73... 

Viswanathan G, Murugesan S, Pushparaj V, Nalamasu O, Ajayan PM, Linhardt RJ (2006) Preparation of biopolymer fibers by electrospinning from room temperature ionic liquids. Biomacromolecules 7 415 418. 

To prepare nano-fibers of polymers, electrospinning is developed... 

McKee MG, Elkins C, Long TE. Influence of self-complementary hydrogen bonding on solution rheology/electrospinning relationships. Polymer 2004 45 8705-8715. 

Electrospinning is a method allowing creation of polymer fibers with diameters in the range between a few tens of nanometers to a few micrometers, starting from a solution of preformed polymer. MIP nanoparticles have been included into nanofibers by electrospinning [126, 127], In another case, the nanofibers were directly produced by electrospinning and polymerizing an MIP-precursor solution [128]. Such MIP fibers can then be used, for example, for the preparation of affinity separation materials [129] or as affinity layers in biosensors [127, 130]. 

Keywords Bioactive Biomaterials Biomimetic Cellular infiltration Electrospinning Extracellular matrix Hydrogels Nanofibers Polymer scaffolds Tissue... 

Fig. 2 Scaffold architecture affects cell binding and spreading. The examples were obtained by (a) phase separation/leaching combination and (b-d) electrospinning. Porosity data was roughly estimated note that classic nanofiber structure is <100 nm, but here is <1000 nm, as found commonly in biomedicine. Scale bars (a) 500 pm, (b-d) 10 pm. Top row. adapted from [12] bottom row. reprinted, with permission, from [47] copyright (2004) Elsevier [48] copyright (2010) Wiley-VCH...

Although the principle of this technique is quite old, electrospinning (ES) has been developed as a powerful tool for the design of fiber meshes with fiber diameters ranging from 10 pm down to a few nanometers, mesh porosities of <90%, and pore sizes of < 1 to 100 pm [156, 157],... 

Table 5 Some fibroin electrospinning results using different solution system...

Chen, C., Cao, C.B., Ma, X.L., Tang, Y., and Zhu, H.S. "Preparation of non-woven mats from all-aqueous silk fibroin solution with electrospinning method". Polymer 47(18), 6322-6327 (2006a). 

Sukigara, S., Gandhi, M., Ayutsede, J., Micklus, M., and Ko, F. "Regeneration of Bombyx mori silk by electrospinning - part 1 Processing parameters and geometric properties". Polymer 44(19), 5721-5727 (2003). 

Wang, H., Shao, H.L., and Hu, X.C. "Structure of silk fibroin fibers made by an electrospinning process from a silk fibroin aqueous solution". J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 101(2), 961-968 (2006). 

Wang, M., Yu, J.H., Kaplan, D.L., and Rutledge, G.C. "Production of submicron diameter silk fibers under benign processing conditions by two-fluid electrospinning". Macromolecules 39(3), 1102-1107 (2006). 

Yu Y, Gu L, Zhu C, Van Aken PA, Maier J. Tin nanoparticles encapsulated in porous multichannel carbon microtubes preparation by single-nozzle electrospinning and application as anode material for high-performance Li-based batteries. J Am Chem Soc. 2009 131 15984-5. 

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