PCL electrospun fiber scaffolds: Synthesis for Potential Biomedical Application

Student Classification

Elizabeth Martu, 3rd-Year, Bioengineering

Faculty Mentor

Narayan Bhattarai, Department of Chemical, Biological and Bioengineering

Department

Department of Chemical, Biological and Bioengineering

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Spring 2023

Abstract

Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Nanofiber technology has received significant attention as a possible solution to the current challenges associated with the biomedical industry. Nanofibers have been used because of their availability from a wide range of materials including natural and synthetic polymers, metals and metal oxides, carbon-based, and as composite nanomaterials. Due to their great flexibility, and ability to form 3D-network structures, nanofibers have been excellent candidates for various biomedical applications, such as dressings for wound healing and drug delivery systems. Electrospinning, an easy fabrication technique, is used to produce biocompatible nanofibers. This technique uses a syringe, power supply and the collector to produce nanofibers from polymer solutions under high electric fields at room temperature. The electrospun nanofibers can mimic the physico-chemical properties of the Extracellular matrix (ECM), which helps give cell-material and cell-cell interactions. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a widely used synthetic polymer in nanofiber synthesis for biomedical applications such as drug delivery and as long-term implants devices. It is biocompatible, biodegradable and its low melting point makes it customizable for specific purposes. In this study, we seek to synthesize nanofiber matrix of PCL and PCL-Zinc at different solution ratios. The fibers were characterized for their surface morphology using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and will later be characterized for mechanic property using tensile testing. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to identify the functional groups and chemical interactions of the samples. We will expose the nanofibers directly and indirectly to cells for cell proliferation and cytotoxicity studies as future works for potential biomedical application.

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