Electrospinning, mechanical properties, and cell behavior study of chitosan/PVA nanofibers

Electrospinning process has been widely used to produce nanofibers from polymer blends. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan (CS) have numerous biomedical applications such as wound healing and tissue engineering. Nanofibers of CS/PVA have been prepared by many works, however, a complete physicochemical and mechanical characterization as well as cell behavior has not been reported. In this study, PVA and CS/PVA blend solutions in acetic acid 70% with different volume ratios (30/70, 50/50, and 70/30) were electrospun in constant electrospinning process parameters. The structure and morphology of nanofibrous mats were characterized by SEM, FTIR, and XRD methods. The best nanofibrous mat was achieved from the CS/PVA 30/70 blend solution regarding the electrospinning throughput. The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) of PVA and CS/PVA 30/70 nanofibrous mats were measured which were not considered in the previous studies. DMTA results in accordance to the DSC analysis approved the partial compatibility between the two polymers, while a single glass transition temperature was not observed for the blend. The tensile strength of PVA and CS/PVA nanofibers were also reported. Results of cell behavior study indicated that the heat stabilized nanofibrous mat CS/PVA 30/70 was able to support the attachment and proliferation of the fibroblast cells.