Polymer solutions electrospun nanofibers

Progress made in electrospinning in the past decade has allowed for the production of fibers in nanoscale diameters from various polymers. Tissue engineering has benefited a lot from this process and quite often silk protein is used to produce nanofiber scaffolds for ceU cultures. Human bone marrow stromal cells were found to proHferate in vitro very well on mats made from poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and B. mori silk aqueous solution electrospun nanofibers [27]. A very interesting work by... 

Other studies in 2000 by Drew et al. reported that it is very difficult to spin fibers of PANI complexed to sulfonated polystyrene (PANFSPS), even when solutions containing sodium chloride and dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid sodium salt were used to lower the surface tension and thereby enhance electrospinning [16,17]. However, PANFSPS nanofibers can be produced by adding a carrier polymer such as PEO, polyacrylonitrile, or polyurethane. Also reported was the use of electrostatically layered sulfonated polystyrene as a template for the surface polymerization of conjugated polymers in their conducting form. Enzymatic synthesis of PANI and a copolymer of pyrrole and PEDOT was done on electrospun nanofiber... 

Figure 4.10 SEM micrographs of electrospun nanofibers from (a) aqueous solutions of 1.5 wt% PEO as carrier with PPy content of 71.5 wt%, (b) 7.5wt% [(PPy3) (DEHS) ]x solution in DMF. The scale bar is Igm. (Reprinted with permission from Polymer, Conductive polypyrrole nanofibers via electrospinning Electrical and morphological properties by I. S. Chronakis, S. Grapenson and A. Jakob, 47, 1597-1603. Copyright (2006) Elsevier Ltd)...

To determine the activity of a single drug in different polymer matrices, the prepared polymer solutions are mixed with 1.5 wt% of each drag alone and electrospun into nanofibers. Then 5-mm circular sections of nanofibers are... 

Some authors have proposed several modified process approaches to obtain electroactive electrospun nanofibers. One first practical and easy way is to spin a nonconductive polymeric web and after polymerize conductive polymers onto the fiber surface. For example, conductive polyamide-6 (PA-6] nanofibers were prepared by polymerizing pyrrole (Py] molecules directly on the fiber surface of PA-6. First, a solution of PA-6 added with ferric chloride in formic acid was electrospun with average diameter values around 260 nm. 

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