Electrospun polyvinyl alcohol/carbon dioxide modified polyethyleneimine composite nanofiber scaffolds

Abstract

A novel biocompatible polyvinyl alcohol/carbon dioxide modified polyethyleneimine (PVA/PEI-CO₂) composite nanofiber was fabricated by a green and facile protocol, which reduces the cytotoxicity of PEI through the surface modification of the PEI with CO₂. The ¹³C NMR spectrum, elemental analysis, and TGA show that CO₂ has been incorporated in the PEI surface resulting in a relatively stable structure. The resulting PVA/PEI-CO₂ composite nanofibers have been characterized by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), contact angle, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the average diameters of the nanofibers range from 265 ± 53 nm to 423 ± 80 nm. The cytotoxicity of PVA/PEI-CO₂ composite nanofibers was assessed by cytotoxicity evaluation using the growth and cell proliferation of normal mice Schwann cells. SEM and the MTT assay demonstrated the promotion of cell growth and proliferation on the PVA/PEI-CO₂ composite scaffold. It suggests that PEI-CO₂ can have tremendous potential applications in biological material research.