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Abstract Electrospinning has emerged as a versatile and accessible technology for fabricating polymer fibers, particularly for biological applications. Natural polymers or biopolymers (including synthetically derivatized natural polymers) represent a promising alternative to synthetic polymers, as materials for electrospinning. Many biopolymers are obtained from abundant renewable sources, are biodegradable, and possess inherent biological functions. This review surveys recent literature reporting new fibers produced from emerging biopolymers, highlighting recent developments in the use of sulfated polymers (including carrageenans and glycosaminoglycans), tannin derivatives (condensed and hydrolyzed tannins, tannic acid), modified collagen, and extracellular matrix extracts. The proposed advantages of these biopolymer‐based fibers, focusing on their biomedical applications, are also discussed to highlight the use of new and emerging biopolymers (or new modifications to well‐established ones) to enhance or achieve new properties for electrospun fiber materials.
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Electrospinning of Heterogeneous Nanofibers: A Review
Electrospinning is a straightforward approach for efficiently creating continuous fibers within the submicron to nanometer size range. Electrospun fibers possess excellent properties like high porosity, large specific surface area, tunable morphology, small diameter, etc., making them desirable in various applications. Because of its various properties, polymer is one of the most used materials as the spinning solution in electrospinning. Electrospun polymeric fibers, by themselves, may serve limited applications. Therefore, they are usually mixed with other materials to serve many applications. There are many ways in which these other materials are mixed with polymers in electrospinning, like doping, surface treatment, functionalization, etc. There are several studies published that report on the various composite fibers produced using electrospinning. However, a review focused solely on the production of heterogeneous fibers, where the electrospun fibers are intrinsically made of more than one material, is lacking. Herein, we review different heterogeneous fibers synthesized using electrospinning and their fabrication methods.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2046929
- PAR ID:
- 10550457
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Electrochemical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ECS Advances
- Volume:
- 3
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2754-2734
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 041001
- Size(s):
- Article No. 041001
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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