Polycaprolactone nanofiber mats fabricated using an electrospinning process supplemented with a chemical blowing agent

A successful scaffold should have a highly porous structure and good mechanical stability. High porosity and appropriate pore size provide structural matrix for initial cell attachment and proliferation enabling the exchange of nutrients between the scaffold and environment. In this paper the highly porous scaffold of poly(ε-caprolactone) electrospun nanofibers could be manufactured with an auxiliary electrode and chemical blowing agent (BA) under several processing conditions, such as the concentration of PCL solution, weight percent of a chemical blowing agent, and decomposition time of a chemical blowing agent. To attain stable electrospinnability and blown nanofiber mats having high microporosity and large pore, a processing condition, 8 wt% of PCL solution and 0.5 wt% of a chemical blowing agent under 100°C and decomposition time of 2-3 s, was used. The growth characteristic of human dermal fibroblasts cells cultured in the mats showed the good adhesion and proliferation on the blown mat compared to a normal electrospun mat.