Fast Dissolving Resveratrol-Polyvinylpyrrolidone Nanofibrous Films Fabricated in Bulk Using a Special Hole...

Batch production of nanomaterials is highly desired for developing commercial nanoproducts. Here, a brand-new electrospinning method, termed hole electrospinning, was developed for batch production of drug-loaded polymeric nanofibers. Using resveratrol and polyvinylpyrrolidone as model drug and filament-forming matrix, respectively, both hole and single-needle electrospinning were conducted. The resultant nanofibrous films were compared in terms of morphology, physical and thermal properties, mechanical performance, fast-dissolution rate, and antioxidant activity. Analytical and characterization results verified that nanofibers from different processes showed no significant differences in morphology, diameter, porosity, tensile strength, amorphous state, fast-dissolution performance and antioxidant activity. However, hole electrospinning provided 13.3-fold higher productivity than single-needle electrospinning, better drug encapsulation efficiency (97.3 ± 4.5% versus 83.7 ± 6.1%), and higher energy efficiency (0.0393 W/g versus 0.1247 W/g). Based on the protocols reported here, not only was a batch nano-conversion method for polymeric engineering developed, but also an attractive approach for the large-scale production of various complex configurations was proposed for potential commercial nanostructure-based products.