A novel approach to enhance the spinnability of collagen fibers by graft polymerization

Abstract

Collagen is an important natural biopolymer that cannot be electrospun easily due to the lost properties occurs in the associated degrading chains while dissolving and spinning. Grafting polymerization of methyl methacrylate-co-Ethyl Acrylate was applied to modify the surface of acid soluble collagen (ASC). The branched copolymer on the surface of collagen significantly influenced the initial viscosity. Since chain entanglement is crucial for fiber formation during electrospinning, the dependency of entanglement concentration on branch densities possessing the approximate same viscosity was investigated; in which the mean fiber diameters of all considered samples remained broadly constant. Increasing the number of branching onto ASC chains significantly decreased the deteriorative impact of the electrospinning conditions. It has also increased the stability of the collagen-based fibers under high humidity conditions. The short chain branched ASC-g-P(MMA-co-EA) can effectively influence the thermal stability of electrospun collagen fibers while the long chain branched ASC-g-P(MMA-co-EA) can provide a higher chain entanglement density leading to the more fiber uniformity.

Keywords: Chain entanglement; Collagen; Electrospinning; Graft polymerization; Surface wettability; Thermal behavior; Water absorption.