Fabrication of Nerve Guide Conduit Based on 3D Graphene/ Polymer for Nerve Tissue Engineering

In recent years, graphene has been considered in various tissue engineering applications such as nerve guide conduits because of its unique properties such as high electrical and mechanical properties, porous structure for exchange of nutritious and waste materials, biocompatible, capability of drug and growth factor delivery. In the current study, nerve guide conduits based on a 3D graphene were synthesized by induction heating chemical vapor deposition (ICVD). Graphene was synthesized on Ni foam template at 1080 ͦC. Fabricated samples were characterized by Raman analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy.  Raman analysis showed that the synthesized graphene is in the form of a turbostratic multilayered graphene with little defects. Cyclododecane (CD) as a temporary protective layer was used to remove nickel. After removing nickel, the free-standing 3D-graphene structure was coated with a polymer (PCL) by drop and dip coating methods to obtain the composite conduit. A comparison of the electromechanical results of the 3D-graphene/PCL conduit and PCL conduit indicated that firstly, grapheme increased the electrical conductivity of the composite conduit which will help promote nerve regeneration and axon growth. Secondly, tensile strength and flexibility of the 3D-graphene/PCL conduit was improved compared to the PCL conduit.