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Green Processing of Nanofibers for Regenerative Medicine
Author(s) -
Krishnan Ranganathan,
Sundarrajan Subramanian,
Ramakrishna Seeram
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.201200323
Subject(s) - electrospinning , materials science , polyelectrolyte , nanofiber , aqueous solution , polymer , solvent , nanotechnology , drug delivery , tissue engineering , regenerative medicine , chemical engineering , polymer science , organic chemistry , composite material , biomedical engineering , chemistry , medicine , biochemistry , engineering , cell
Electrospinning of polymer scaffolds is mostly carried out using organic solvents, but the drawbacks are: solvent costs, environmental hazards, and presence of traces of solvent impurities. The use of water‐soluble polymers (WSPs), water or aqueous solutions as an electrospinning medium (green processing) is a very attractive method to avoid such issues. However, a few WSP such as polyelectrolytes are not spinnable as such, but have been electrospun by addition of WSPs, additives, and salts. This paper covers solution properties, polyelectrolyte nanofibrous scaffolds (polysaccharides, biopolymers, etc.), fabrication through green processing, and their regenerative medical applications such as wound dressing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. This is the first review to cover the above issues, the drawbacks of current methods, and future challenges.