Electrospinning of fibrous PHBV tissue engineering scaffolds: Fiber diameter control, fiber alignment and mechanical properties

Poly(hydroxybutrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) fibrous membranes were fabricated through electrospinning. The effects of polymer solution properties including solution concentration and salt addition were investigated such that uniform fibers with diameters ranging from several hundred nanometers to a few micrometers were successfully produced. It was found that the fiber diameter increased with polymer solution concentration and drastically decreased with the addition of benzyl triethylammonium chloride. For each type of PHBV polymer solution, fibrous membranes with different fiber orientations such as random fibers, aligned fibers and double-layered structures consisting of aligned fibers were produced and the effect of solution properties on fiber alignment was analyzed. The mechanical properties of fibrous membranes with different fiber diameters and different fiber orientations were systematically investigated using tensile tests. The aligned fibers exhibited high tensile strength along the fiber direction.