Surfactant-assisted water exposed electrospinning of novel super hydrophilic polycaprolactone based fibers

Abstract

Hybrid scaffolds prepared by blend electrospinning of Polycaprolactone and Pluronic solution benefit from enhanced fiber hydrophilicity and may offer satisfactory cell attachment and proliferation. To improve hybrid scaffold wettability and water swelling ratio, adequate amount of hydrophilic polymer is required; though this amount is limited by fiber surface enrichment of Pluronic and cannot be exceeded without affecting the scaffold mechanical properties. To overcome this problem, a routine blend electrospinning setup was modified by exposing the blend solution to water in order to attract Pluronic chains toward the surface of the charged jet. Morphology of scaffolds produced by the routine blend electrospinning and modified method was studied. A 50 nm thick Pluronic layer with linty appearance on the surface of the fibers fabricated by the modified method was detected. Drug-loaded fibers from modified method showed a moderate initial burst and then a prolonged release period while an abnormal two-stage phased release profile was observed for the routine blend method. The latter was associated to Pluronic/drug accumulations within the fibers fabricated by the routine method which resulted in fiber disintegration and a subsequent second burst release.

Keywords:

• Blend electrospinning
• hydrophilicity
• pluronic
• surface enrichment
• water exposure

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding information

This study was not funded by any organization.