posted on 2023-01-09, 18:05authored byDiana
G. Oldal, Fuat Topuz, Tibor Holtzl, Gyorgy Szekely
The electrospinning of polymer nanofibers has received
significant
attention owing to their high surface-area-to-volume ratio, high porosity,
adjustable pore size and texture, and highly interconnected porous
structure. In particular, the electrospinning of biodegradable cellulose
acetate (CA) nanofibers has sparked interest in diverse applications,
including drug delivery systems, scaffolding for tissue engineering,
air filtration, and affinity membrane systems. However, the electrospinning
process has been mostly performed using toxic and hazardous solvents
and additives. We developed electrospun CA nanofibers using a green
solvent system comprising dimethyl carbonate and cyclopentanone. The
use of green additives, namely, tetrabutylammonium bromide salts and
sophorolipid-based biosurfactants, obtained from honey yeast, substantially
improved the spinnability of the CA solution. Moreover, the nanofiber
diameter and porous texture were tunable by adjusting the solvent
ratio. Pore generation was induced using volatile dimethyl carbonate,
which quickly evaporated from the fiber jet. Molecular dynamics simulations
demonstrated that the electrospinning process can be divided into
three stages. The addition of the biosurfactant facilitated the evaporation
process and improved the uniformity of the nanofibers. Furthermore,
the nanofibers can be degraded using esterase and cellulase enzymes.
To summarize, the electrospinning of ultrafine CA porous nanofibers
with tunable morphology was achieved using green solvents and additives.