Conformal Fabrication of an Electrospun Nanofiber Mat on a 3D Ear Cartilage-Shaped Hydrogel Collector Based on Hydrogel-Assisted Electrospinning

Nanoscale Research Letters

Jae Woo Lee¹  Changryul Claud Yi²  Seong Hwan Bae²  Jin Yeong Song³  Jeong Myeong Lee³  Sang Min Park³  Hyun Il Ryu³ 

[1] Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Pusan National University School of Medicine, 179 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, 49241, Busan, South Korea;Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Pusan National University School of Medicine, 179 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, 49241, Busan, South Korea;Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, 179 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, 49241, Busan, South Korea;School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, 2, Busandaehak-ro 63 beon-gil, Geumjeong-gu, 46241, Busan, South Korea;

关键词: Electrospinning;    Nanofiber;    Hydrogel;    3D printing;    Ear cartilage;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s11671-021-03571-6

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Electrospinning is a common and versatile process to produce nanofibers and deposit them on a collector as a two-dimensional nanofiber mat or a three-dimensional (3D) macroscopic arrangement. However, 3D electroconductive collectors with complex geometries, including protruded, curved, and recessed regions, generally caused hampering of a conformal deposition and incomplete covering of electrospun nanofibers. In this study, we suggested a conformal fabrication of an electrospun nanofiber mat on a 3D ear cartilage-shaped hydrogel collector based on hydrogel-assisted electrospinning. To relieve the influence of the complex geometries, we flattened the protruded parts of the 3D ear cartilage-shaped hydrogel collector by exploiting the flexibility of the hydrogel. We found that the suggested fabrication technique could significantly decrease an unevenly focused electric field, caused by the complex geometries of the 3D collector, by alleviating the standard deviation by more than 70% through numerical simulation. Furthermore, it was experimentally confirmed that an electrospun nanofiber mat conformally covered the flattened hydrogel collector with a uniform thickness, which was not achieved with the original hydrogel collector. Given that this study established the conformal electrospinning technique on 3D electroconductive collectors, it will contribute to various studies related to electrospinning, including tissue engineering, drug/cell delivery, environmental filter, and clothing.

【 授权许可】

CC BY