Electric potential plays an indispensable role in tissue engineering and wound healing. Piezoelectric nanogenerators based on direct piezoelectric effects can be self-powered energy sources for electrical stimulation and have attracted extensive attention. However, the accuracy of piezoelectric stimuli on piezoelectric polymers membranes in vitro during the dynamic condition is rarely studied. Here, a self-powered tunable electrical stimulation system for assisting the proliferation of preosteoblasts was achieved by well-aligned P(VDF-TrFE) piezoelectric nanofiber membrane (NFM) both as a nanogenerator (NG) and as a scaffold. The effects of electrospinning and different post-treatments (annealing and poling) on the surface wettability, piezoelectric β phase, ferroelectric properties, and sensing performance of NFMs were evaluated here. The polarized P(VDF-TrFE) NFM offered an enhanced piezoelectric value (d31 of 22.88 pC/N) versus pristine P(VDF-TrFE) NFM (d31 of 0.03 pC/N) and exhibited good sensing performance. The maximum voltage and current output of the P(VDF-TrFE) piezoelectric nanofiber NGs reached -1.7 V and 41.5 nA, respectively. An accurate electrical response was obtained in real time under dynamic mechanical stimulation by immobilizing the NGs on the flexible bottom of the culture plate, thereby restoring the real scene of providing electrical stimulation to the cells in vitro. In addition, we simulated the interaction between the piezoelectric nanofiber NG and cells through an equivalent circuit model. To verify the feasibility of P(VDF-TrFE) nanofiber NGs as an exact electrical stimulation, the effects of different outputs of P(VDF-TrFE) nanofiber NGs on cell proliferation in vitro were compared. The study realized a significant enhancement of preosteoblasts proliferation. This work demonstrated the customizability of P(VDF-TrFE) piezoelectric nanofiber NG for self-powered electrical stimulation system application and suggested its significant potential application for tissue repair and regeneration.
Keywords: P(VDF-TrFE); piezoelectric nanogenerator; preosteoblasts electrospinning; well-aligned nanofibers.