Study of the effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on electrospinnability of poly-L-lactic acid solutions: Voltage waveform effect

Polymeric nanofibrous mats are currently used for biomedical applications as tissue engineering scaffolds. Electrospinning is an innovative and efficient technology to produce scaffolds starting from a polymeric solution. However, toxic organic solvents must be frequently used to produce fibers with good morphology. In particular, high boiling solvents are often helpful for improving polymer electrospinnability. Nevertheless, toxic traces may be found in the final electrospun mat. In order to minimize the use of organic solvents, particularly the high boiling point ones, while maintaining good electrospinnability of the polymeric solution, the latter can be exposed to plasma. In this work we investigate the use of a novel treatment enabling the production of good quality nanofibers starting from a polymer dissolved in 100% of a low boiling point solvent. This treatment consists in the exposure of the polymeric solution to an atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma before the electrospinning process. Plasma can be driven by several bias showing different waveforms. In this study the waveform influence on the electrospinnability of the plasma treated solution is investigated.