Polarized P(VDF-TrFE) film promotes skin wound healing through controllable surface potential

Surface potential of biomaterials is found to be important for wound healing. Here, poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) films with different surface potentials and piezoelectric responses were prepared and explored for the effect of surface potential on wound healing. The crystalline state of P(VDF-TrFE) films were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), illustrated that the electric polarization will promote the crystallization of the β phase of P(VDF-TrFE), in which the content of β phase increased from 82.9 % to 86.8 % compared with the control. Then, Kelvin potential and piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ were to evaluate surface potential and polarization performance. Moreover, bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption and cell culture results showed that high surface potential can promote protein adsorption as well as fibroblast proliferation and macrophage polarization. Finally, in vivo experiments indicated that high voltage polarized P(VDF-TrFE) films can generate higher dynamic potential up to 2.3 V, and promoted wound healing from the phases of inflammation, proliferation and remodeling, the wound healing rate of which was 88.8 % ± 0.8 %, significantly higher than 79.1 % ± 2.5 % and 86.4 % ± 1.8 % of blank and control. In general, this work revealed that polarized P(VDF-TrFE) films can promote wound healing, shed light on designing wound healing materials with similar properties.