Compositional Influence on the Morphology and Thermal Properties of Woven Non-Woven Mats of PLA/OLA/MgO Electrospun Fibers

Abstract

In the present work, a statistical study of the morphology and thermal behavior of poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/oligomer(lactic acid) (OLA)/magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO), electrospun fibers (efibers) has been carried out. The addition of both, OLA and MgO, is expected to modify the final properties of the electrospun PLA-based nanocomposites for their potential use in biomedical applications. Looking for the compositional optimization of these materials, a Box–Wilson design of experiment was used, taking as dependent variables the average fiber diameter as the representative of the fiber morphologies, as well as the glass transition temperature (Tg) and the degree of crystallinity (Xc) as their thermal response. The results show <r2> values of 73.76% (diameter), 88.59% (Tg) and 75.61% (Xc) for each polynomial fit, indicating a good correlation between both OLA and MgO, along with the morphological as well as the thermal behavior of the PLA-based efibers in the experimental space scanned.

Effect of the Addition of MgO Nanoparticles on the Thermally-Activated Shape Memory Behavior of Plasticized PLA Electrospun Fibers

“…OLA properly decreases the T g of PLA to values closer to the physiological temperature. However, the addition of MgO NPs in the range of 0.1-3 wt% does not significantly affect the T g of the reinforced efibers [30]. As previously reported [22], the short polymeric chains tend to crystallize, thus enhancing the formation of PLA crystals, which leads to slightly higher degrees of crystallinity (X c ).…”

“…The dispersion process was carried out with a sonicator tip (Sonic Vibra-Cell VCX 750, Sonics & Materials, Newton, CT, USA) of 750 watts and an amplitude of 20%. Once the different solutions were obtained, electrospun fiber mats were prepared in an Electrospinner Y-flow 2.2.D-XXX (Nanotechnology Solutions) following our previously described method [30] Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) (PHILIPS XL30 Scanning Electron Microscope) was used in order to study the morphology and the diameters of the efibers. All the samples were previously gold-coated (~5 nm thickness) in a Polaron SC7640 Auto/Manual Sputter.…”

“…OLA properly decreases the T g of PLA to values closer to the physiological temperature. However, the addition of MgO NPs in the range of 0.1-3 wt% does not significantly affect the T g of the reinforced efibers[30].…”

The engineering, drug release, and in vitro evaluations of the PLLA/HPC/Calendula Officinalis electrospun nanofibers optimized by Response Surface Methodology

“…Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is an efficacious and systematic approach to the design of experiments (DoE) and modeling/optimizing a wide range of processes. Unlike the traditional methods, this approach can investigate the effect of simultaneous changes in several variables and monitor their interaction with each other [ 25 , 26 ]. Jadbabaei et al nicely applied the RSM to prepare a potential electrospun scaffold based on polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate.…”

Study on the Tensile Behavior of Woven Non-Woven PLA/OLA/MgO Electrospun Fibers

“…Efforts have been carried out to enhance these mechanical properties, including blending with other biodegradable polymers [11,12], copolymerization with other polymers [13,14], reinforcing with nanoparticles, NPs [15,16], or the incorporation of plasticizers agents [17][18][19][20]. Particularly, the design of PLA-based nanocomposites by adding NPs represents one of the most used strategies to increase and to enhance the mechanical properties of PLA [12,21].…”