Polylactic Acid Nanofiber Membranes Grafted with Carbon Nanotubes with Enhanced Mechanical and Electrical Properties

Fernando Gisbert Roca; Cristina Martínez-Ramos; Sergiy Ivashchenko; Abel García-Bernabé; Vicente Compañ; Manuel Monleón Pradas

doi:10.1021/acsapm.3c00776

Polylactic Acid Nanofiber Membranes Grafted with Carbon Nanotubes with Enhanced Mechanical and Electrical Properties

ACS Appl Polym Mater. 2023 Jul 12;5(8):6081-6094. doi: 10.1021/acsapm.3c00776. eCollection 2023 Aug 11.

Authors

Fernando Gisbert Roca¹, Cristina Martínez-Ramos^{1

2}, Sergiy Ivashchenko¹, Abel García-Bernabé³, Vicente Compañ³, Manuel Monleón Pradas^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. Universitat Politècnica de València. Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain.
² Unitat Predepartamental de Medicina, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spain.
³ Departamento de Termodinámica Aplicada. Universitat Politècnica de València. Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain.
⁴ CIBER-BBN. Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering Biomaterials and Nanomedicine. Madrid 28029, Spain.

Abstract

Electroconductive materials based on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) electrospinning membranes grafted with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) functionalized with the carboxylic group R-COOH have been obtained. PLA electrospun membranes were modified with sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) to oxidize its surface to subsequently graft the CNTs, the treatment time and drying of the membranes before grafting with CNTs being critical, influencing the final properties of the materials. SEM images showed that CNTs presented a uniform distribution on the surface of the PLA nanofibers, while FTIR spectra of PLA-CNTs materials revealed characteristic hydroxyl groups, as evidenced by absorption peaks of CNTs. Thanks to the grafting with CNTs, the resulting PLA-CNTs membranes present an improvement of the mechanical and conductive properties when compared with PLA membranes. On the one hand, grafting with CNTs causes the nanofibers to have greater rigidity, so they are more manipulable and can more easily preserve their conformation when stress is exerted. On the other hand, grafting with CNTs allows elimination of the insulating barrier of the PLA, reducing the resistivity and providing high electrical conductivity to the PLA-CNTs membranes. The incorporation of CNTs into PLA electrospun membranes is expected to offer greater functionalities to electrospun composite nanofibers for medical and industrial applications.