The Effect of Rotating Collector Design on Tensile Properties and Morphology of Electrospun Polycaprolactone Fibres

Abstract

Electrospinning is a technique that can produce fibres in the nanoscale range. This process is useful for many applications, including fabrication of fibrous scaffolds for fibrocartilage tissue engineering. For this application, cell attachment and tissue development is influenced by fibre morphology and mechanical properties. This electrospinning study investigated the influence of rotating collector design on morphology and mechanical properties of electrospun polycaprolactone fibre. The experiment employed 4 mandrel designs: 1) full surface of aluminium; 2) with gap feature; 3) with gap feature and teflon support; 4) with gap feature and tape support. The highest elastic modulus was obtained from mandrel with gap and tape support, which was 24.6 MPa and significantly higher compared to fibres acquired from other collector designs. Fibre diameter attained was identical across the different collectors, ranging from 0.5 - 2 μm. Gap introduction showed enhanced alignment in the resultant fibre. It can be concluded that fibre alignment and tensile properties can be improved by simply modifying the collector design. This improved fibre mat can be developed as a biomaterial for fibrocartilage tissue engineering scaffolds.