engleski

Melt electrospinning and its application in tissue engineering

Melt electrospinning and its application in tissue engineering research is part of the Croatian Science Foundation project concerning the development of electrospun scaffolds suitable for skin and ocular cells culture. The melt electrospinning process is free of organic solvents thus avoiding toxicity problems when developing medical products. Another important aspect is certainly the micro fibrous structure that is produced by melt electrospinning, thus very much favourable for the cells in-depth penetration in the scaffolds. The “Spraybase” melt electrospinning device used in this project combines electrospinning and 3D printing principles for the production of custom tailored scaffolds with target defined topography. The “Spraybase” device involves several steps in the production of the melt electrospun scaffolds: 1) 3D design and model generation of the scaffolds geometry, 2) polymer selection (in this project polycaprolactone or polylactid), 3) temperature, electrical voltage, pressure and head to collector distance set up and 4) electrospinning. The process involves the formation of the melt jet though polymer melting, as the polymer is pushed by the pressure in the head, the jet starts to form at the tip of the nozzle and stretches by the electrical voltage. The geometry of the scaffold is formed by the movement of the collector in the X and Y axis according to the 3D model. The thickness of the scaffold results from the head movement in the Z direction. The micro fibers are positioned in compliance with the designed patterns.

Melt-electrospinning, thermoplastic polymers, nanofibers, polymer melt, scaffolds

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