Alginate Electrospinning: Challenges and Solutions

Document Type : compile

Authors

1 Department of Cell Engineering, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

2 School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology

Abstract

Electrospinning, as a versatile nanofiber fabrication method, has evinced a lot of
attention due to its simplicity, efficiency and ability to produce continuous nanofibers.
However, electrospinning of natural polymers such as proteins and polysaccharides seems
to be challenging for different reasons mainly in the absence of appropriate solvent, high
viscosity or in some cases polyelectrolyte nature of solutions. Among natural polymers,
alginate with its abundant algal source, structural and chemical resemblance to extracellular
matrix and desirable properties like biocompatibility and biodegradability, has attracted the
attention of researchers extensively. Alginate has a great potential in many applications in
different areas in medicine including tissue engineering, drug delivery and wound dressing
fabrication. Also a vast number of studies in literature have focused on fabricating alginate
nanofibers through electrospinning, no considerable success in achieving nanofibers with
high alginate content has been reported. Through evaluating different studies and reports in
this regard, it becomes evident that part of the challenge is due to the lack of a comprehensive
description focused on investigating and analyzing the conducted studies and underlying
strategies. Hence, the aim of this review is to examine challenges and obstacles in alginate
electrospinning and to open discussions in literature, in order to pave the way for more
intended and successful research in this field.

Keywords

Main Subjects


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