Shortening of electrospun PLLA fibers by ultrasonication

Beata Niemczyk-Soczynska; Judyta Dulnik; Oliwia Jeznach; Dorota Kolbuk; Pawel Sajkiewicz

doi:10.1016/j.micron.2021.103066

Shortening of electrospun PLLA fibers by ultrasonication

Micron. 2021 Jun:145:103066. doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2021.103066. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Authors

Beata Niemczyk-Soczynska¹, Judyta Dulnik¹, Oliwia Jeznach¹, Dorota Kolbuk¹, Pawel Sajkiewicz²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Lab. Polymers & Biomaterials, Polish Academy of Sciences, Pawinskiego 5b St., 02-106, Warsaw, Poland.
² Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Lab. Polymers & Biomaterials, Polish Academy of Sciences, Pawinskiego 5b St., 02-106, Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: psajk@ippt.pan.pl.

PMID: 33848781
DOI: 10.1016/j.micron.2021.103066

Abstract

This research work is aimed at studying the effect of ultrasounds on the effectiveness of fiber fragmentation by taking into account the type of sonication medium, processing time, and various PLLA molecular weights. Fragmentation was followed by an appropriate filtration in order to decrease fibers length distribution. It was evidenced by fiber length determination using SEM that the fibers are shortened after ultrasonic treatment, and the effectiveness of shortening depends on the two out of three investigated parameters, mostly on the sonication medium, and processing time. The gel permeation chromatography (GPC) confirmed that such ultrasonic treatment does not change the polymers' molecular weight. Our results allowed to optimize the ultrasonic fragmentation procedure of electrospun fibers while preliminary viscosity measurements of fibers loaded into hydrogel confirmed their potential in further use as fillers for injectable hydrogels for regenerative medicine applications.

Keywords: Electrospinning; Polymers; Short fibers; Ultrasonication.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't