Electrospinning of Gelatin/Poly (Vinyl Pyrrolidone) Blends from Water/Acetic Acid Solutions

Electrospinning is a versatile and efficient technique for obtaining polymeric microfibers and nanofibers with great potential for applications in tissue engineering, biosensors, filtration, wound dressings, controlled drug release and enzyme immobilization. Electrospun fibers are obtained by applying an electric field in a polymer solution resulting in non-woven fibrous mats with high surface area relative to volume and high porosity. In this work, the electrospinning of gelatin/poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) blends was investigated. The polymers were electrospun from solutions containing different concentrations of water and acetic acid. Solutions were characterized by measuring the pH, electrical conductivity, surface tension and viscosity. The influence of acetic acid concentration in solution properties and its influence in the spinnability were investigated. The resulting non-woven membranes were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and cytotoxicity.