Thermal analysis of coaxial electrospun membranes for biomedical applications

The electrospinning process allows producing nanofibrous membranes with morphologies very similar to the human tissue. For this reason, they are intensely studied to prove their applicability in the biomedical field. Thus, different types of electrospinning are now investigated, from the nanospider electrospinning to the coaxial electrospinning. In particular, the coaxial electrospinning results to be an efficient method to produce bilayer nanofibers with very different properties in order to tune the wettability of the system, the mechanical properties and the drug release. In the current study, coaxial electrospun membranes made of polyvinyl alcohol are produced and the process conditions are presented. Moreover, the obtained membranes have been analysed investigating the thermal stability and the typical main thermal transition by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis of the complex obtained systems.