Review of Possible Applications of Nanofibrous Mats for Wound Dressings

Abstract

Skin is an important part of the human body. Its function is to control the body's homeostasis mechanism. If a skin injury occurs, it is of utmost importance to heal the skin as soon as possible. The currently available medical treatment system, however, has limited eff ectiveness on the regeneration of the structure and function of the injured skin, potentially causing wound infections and dehydration. The corresponding impact on the healing process may in the worst case also be fatal. To overcome these problems in wound dressing materials, nanofi brous mats are excellent candidates for wound treatment and management. Such wound dressings can be found in biomedical applications not only in drug delivery, but also as antibacterial and antimicrobial materials, and as materials for the regeneration and repair of tissue or organs. The large surface-area-to-volume ratio is one of the unique properties of nanofi brous mats. This paper gives a brief overview of possible materials and applications of nanofi brous mats for wound dressing.

Magnetic Properties of Electrospun Magnetic Nanofiber Mats after Stabilization and Carbonization

“…Electrospinning makes it possible to create nanofiber mats from diverse materials, such as pure polymers [1][2][3], polymers blends, composite fibers from polymers and ceramics or metals [4,5], and cyclodextrins [6]. These can be used in diverse applications such as filters [7][8][9], biotechnology and tissue engineering [10][11][12], for energy harvesting and storage [13,14], or other "smart" functions [15]. Recently, a strong focus of diverse research groups has been related to electrospinning magnetic nanofibers, either as composites [16][17][18] or, after calcination of the composites to remove polymers, as pure metal nanofibers [19][20][21].…”

Orientation of Electrospun Magnetic Nanofibers Near Conductive Areas

“…Generally, different technologies can be applied, such as the common needle-based one in which a polymer solution or melt is pressed through a needle into the electric field [4][5][6], wire-based techniques [7][8][9], cylinder-based one [10] and diverse other geometries of spinning electrode and substrate. Such nanofiber mats can be used for a broad variety of applications, such as air or water filtration [11][12][13], biotechnology and biomedicine [14][15][16][17], batteries and solar cells [18][19][20], etc.…”

Electrospun Nanofiber Mats with Embedded Non-Sintered TiO2 for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs)

“…This is why we report here on investigations of a common cotton fabric as an example of a macroscopic textile and a nanofiber mat with fine pores as possible matrices to embed TiO 2 from an aqueous solution. Nanofiber mats can be produced by electrospinning [20][21][22], typically using water-soluble [23] or waterproof polymers [24], partly with integrated ceramics, metals, or other materials [25][26][27]. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN), lignin, and other materials are of special interest since they can be stabilized and carbonized after electrospinning, in this way creating conductive carbon nanofiber mats that can be used in a broad variety of applications [28][29][30].…”