Estimation and Optimization of Physical Properties of Electrospun PLGA Nanofibrous Mat

The physical properties of electrospun nanofibrous mats have a significant effect on the behavior of electrospun mat in interaction with other surfaces, as well as on its efficiency in various applications. Therefore, determining and predicting these structural properties using controllable factors in the electrospinning process are of particular importance. On this basis, in the present research each of the structural properties of nanofibrous mat, including mat porosity, diameter and porosity of fiber, were estimated using mathematical relationships. Also, the prediction and optimization of input factors and the porosity of the mat and fibers were performed using the response surface methodology (RSM).

Poly(lactic-glycolic-acid) was used to produce nanofibrous mats. After the determination and optimization of the electrospinning process factors, which influence the structural properties of nanofibrous mats, 18 types of mats were prepared. Considering the combined effect of three electrospinning factors, including solution concentration, humidity and collector linear speed, RSM and regression methods were used to optimize and model the relationship between variables and mat properties, respectively.

Based on the mathematical relationships between the input factors and the structural characteristics of the mat, it can be revealed that the concentration is the most effective factor on the fiber diameter and mat porosity, and the collection speed is the most effective factor on the fiber porosity. According to the RSM models, the optimized values for the initial factors of concentration, humidity and collection speed based on the model designed for fiber porosity are 2% (w/v), 45% and 0.4 m/s, and based on the model designed for mat porosity are 3% (w/v), 45% and 2.4 m/s, respectively. The predicted optimized values of fiber porosity and mat porosity are 0.342% and 0.989%, respectively, which are not much different from the experimental values obtained from these points. The nanofibrous mat introduced by each of these models has created the most porosity.