Nanofibrous Mats of Rigid Polysaccharides Prepared by Coaxial Electrospinning

Nanofibrous membranes of rigid polysaccharides including chitosan,alginate or hyaluronic acid(HA) were obtained by coaxial electrospinning of their corresponding aqueous solutions(the inner dope) and PEO(M_n=6.0×10~5) solution in a DMF/H_2O admixture(the outer dope) and subsequent removal of the outer PEO shell.The fiber structure was characterized by TEM and SEM.It is found that core-shell fibers with PEO forming the shell and polysaccharide as the core material can be conveniently prepared by coaxial electrospinning.The PEO shell can be removed by extraction of the core-shell fibers with chloroform.Compared with the polysaccharide fibers prepared by regular uni-axial electrospinning, the fibers(obtained) by coaxial electrospinning display integrated structure after PEO treatment.