The effect of silver nitrate addition on the properties of electrospun polycaprolactone membranes with potential application for electrical stimulation in tissue engineering

Abstract

The present work studies the effect of the addition of silver nitrate on the morphological, thermal, structural, mechanical, and electrical conductivity properties of polycaprolactone-AgNO3 membranes obtained by electrospinning, with a potential application for electrical stimulation in tissue engineering. The pure PCL membrane presented beads and fine fibers, while the PCL-AgNO3 membranes presented bead-less and greater diameter fibers than the pure polymer. Polymer crystallinity was affected by the salt due to the formation of complexes between the ions and the polymer, which affects polymer chains organization. These changes in fiber morphology and polymer chain organization affected their mechanical properties, resulting in a greater Young’s modulus and ultimate tensile strength with added salt. The ionic conductivity of the sample with 10% salt (2.02・10–3 S/m) is close to the conductivity of cortical bone (1.82・10–3–6.67・10–3 S/m), which indicates its potential application for electrical stimulation in bone tissue engineering.

Keywords

• nanomaterials
• fibers
• electrospinning
• silver nitrate
• ionic conductivity