Impact of Additives on Mechanical Properties of Supramolecular Electrospun Scaffolds

Bastiaan D Ippel; Eline E Van Haaften; Carlijn V C Bouten; Patricia Y W Dankers

doi:10.1021/acsapm.0c00658

Impact of Additives on Mechanical Properties of Supramolecular Electrospun Scaffolds

ACS Appl Polym Mater. 2020 Sep 11;2(9):3742-3748. doi: 10.1021/acsapm.0c00658. Epub 2020 Aug 18.

Authors

Bastiaan D Ippel^{1

2}, Eline E Van Haaften^{1

2}, Carlijn V C Bouten^{1

2}, Patricia Y W Dankers^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
² Laboratory for Cell and Tissue Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
³ Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The mechanical properties of scaffolds used for mechanically challenging applications such as cardiovascular implants are unequivocally important. Here, the effect of supramolecular additive functionalization on mechanical behavior of electrospun scaffolds was investigated for one bisurea-based model additive and two previously developed antifouling additives. The model additive has no effect on the mechanical properties of the bulk material, whereas the stiffness of electrospun scaffolds was slightly decreased compared to pristine PCL-BU following the addition of the three different additives. These results show the robustness of supramolecular additives used in biomedical applications, in which mechanical properties are important, such as vascular grafts and heart valve constructs.