Excessive cicatrisation or epidural fibrosis in the operative field is an inappropriate event occasionally occurring after neurosurgical procedures (i.e., spine procedures and craniotomies). This excessive process may disturb the postoperative course and render reoperations more difficult and risky. The literature describes this phenomenon as accompanying up to 20% of neurosurgical procedures. ...

Electrospinning of fibrous tissue engineering scaffolds has been traditionally conducted using positive voltages. In the current study, positive voltage (PV) electrospinning and negative voltage (NV) electrospinning were investigated for forming fibrous membranes of poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV). In both PV-electrospinning and NV-electrospinning, the fiber diameter generally i...

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanofibers are obtained by electrospinning a sol-gel based solution and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) polymer, and subsequent sintering of the electrospun precursor fibers. The PVP content of the precursor solution is critical in the formation of the fully fibrous mats. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to examine the morphology of the precursor fibers and a...

We performed an extensive characterization of an electrospinning process to evaluate how the process parameters and precursor solution characteristics affect the fibers morphology. The work was conducted using precursor solutions with different concentrations of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) diluted in a fixed amount of N,N dimethylformamide (DMF). Fibers obtained with this process can find important...

Atmospheric pressure non equilibrium plasma treatments have been implemented to produce solvent-free Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) scaffolds, to improve biocompatibility of PLLA mats and to increase electrolyte uptake of Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) separators for lithium batteries. It has been observed that plasma treatments are a suitable way to improve polymeric solution electrospinnability,...

Polymeric fibers with diameters in the range from 50 nm to 5 mm are produced by accelerating a fluid jet in an electric field, in a process known as ‘‘electrospinning.’’ Here we show that an essential element of the process is a fluid instability, the rapidly whipping jet. The phenomena responsible for the onset of whipping are revealed by a linear instability analysis that describes the jet be...

Nanotechnology and nanomaterials have the potential to revolutionize existing and create entirely new industries. Unique physical, mechanical, chemical, and biological properties of nanomaterials have been extensively documented in the last two decades. However, most nanomaterials are discontinuous in nature, creating problems with their processing and manipulation into devices and raising heal...

Temperature is an important parameter during electrospinning, and virtually, all solution electrospinning processes are conducted at ambient temperature. Nanofiber diameters presumably decrease with the elevation of working fluid temperature. The present study investigated the influence of temperature variations on the formation of polymeric nanofibers during single-fluid electrospinning. The s...

Electrically conductive nanofiber is well known as an excellent nanostructured material for its outstanding performances. In this work, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)-coated polyvinyl alcohol-graphene oxide (PVA-GO)-conducting nanofibers were fabricated via a combined method using electrospinning and electropolymerization techniques. During electrospinning, the concentration of PVA-GO...

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were prepared by a needleless electrospinning method using three rotating fiber generators, cylinder, disc and coil. The effects of the spinneret shape on the electrospinning process and resultant fiber morphology were examined. The disc spinneret needed the lowest voltage to initiate fiber formation, followed by the coil and cylinder. Compared to cylinder, th...