Electrospun nanofibers for skin-contact applications

The use of nanofibers is expanding from academic into industry as these lightweight and highly porous materials are advantageous in many application areas. The main objectives of this roject is to reveal the potential of the bioeconomy in Europe, to decrease the use of fossil-based products, lead to greener and more environmentally friendly growth by fighting against climate change. For this purpose, nonwovens are prepared from bio-based polymers using solution electrospinning method for cosmetics and wound-care applications

Crosslinking of electrospun and bioextruded partially hydrolyzed poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) using glutaraldehyde vapour

Poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)s (PEtOx) have received substantial attention for various potential biomedical applications, yet they have not been explored as scaffold materials to any extensive degree. A major challenge to open up future applications is to overcome the poor water stability of these materials. We here propose a universal crosslinking strategy for these materials based on a partial acidic hydrolysis of PEtOx to poly[(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)-co-(ethylenimine)] (PEtOx-EI) followed by exposure to glutaraldehyde vapour to create water-stable scaffolds. To demonstrate the utility of this approach two different fabrication techniques were used to make 2-and 3-dimensional structures, namely solution electrospinning and fused deposition modelling (FDM). Because the partial hydrolysis results in increased hydrophilicity, the crosslinking conditions for the fine PEtOx-EI nanofibers were carefully tuned to enable crosslinking of the nanofibers prior to a loss of the nanofibrous morphology. Conversely, for the thicker FDM printed PEtOx-EI structures the crosslinking conditions are more tolerant. Crosslinking with glutaraldehyde vapour provided water-stability to both 2D and 3D constructs, which is an important asset for biomedical applications