Fabrication, characterization and degradation of electrospun poly(ε-Caprolactone) infused with selenium nanoparticles

Abstract

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is widely used in the fabrication of nanofibers through the electrospinning technique. PCL is a biodegradable material that is economical, simple and can be scaled up for industrial production. In this study, PCL was infused with selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) via electrospinning to fabricate PCL-SeNPs nanofiber. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images of the samples revealed 'aligned fibers' were successfully fabricated with a diameter of less than 350 nm and an average diameter of 185 nm. The presence of Se in the nanofiber was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Raman spectra. Based on the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, the structure of PCL did not change and remained in the PCL-SeNPs nanofibers. As indicated by infrared (IR) spectra, the functional groups of PCL remained the same after SeNPs infusion. These results demonstrated that PCL nanofibers' physical and chemical properties were not affected by the infusion of SeNPs. In addition, the hydrophobicity of the PCL decreased slightly in the presence of SeNPs. The first month after degradation, disorganized and fibrous fibers of PCL-SeNPs nanofiber were observed, followed by the formation of large fiber clumps as degradation time increased. An agglomerated SeNPs made PCL-SeNPs nanofiber pores looser and easier to be hydrolyzed after four months of degradation. The sticky surface of PCL-SeNPs nanofiber shows acceleration in the hydrolysis process after 24th weeks of degradation. The presence of SeNPs enhanced the degradation behavior and reduced the degradation time to break into pieces, starting after six months of degradation. The 'aligned' PCL-SeNPs nanofiber, which can mimic the natural tissue extracellular matrix (ECM) morphology, can potentially be used in biomedical applications such as tissue engineering, wound dressing, biomedicine, sensor and filtration application.