Crosslinking of melt-electrospun scaffolds

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Paul Dalton; Professor Dr. Robert Luxenhofer
• Subject Area: Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers ; Biomaterials
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 310771104

Melt electrospinning writing (MEW) is a computer-aided fibre deposition process that allows the rational design and fabrication of 3-dimensional fibrous scaffolds with ultrafine fibres. To expand the number of materials available for soft tissue engineering, we propose to create hydrogel MEW tissue engineering scaffolds, using in-situ crosslinking of water-soluble polymers. This solvent-free approach uses the solidification of a polymer melt cooling to create a defined fibrous scaffold that will swell, but not dissolve, in water. To this end, we will prepare hydrophilic polymers that are crosslinkable. These will be 3-D printed into high resolution scaffolds that will swell in water. The equilibrium water content and mechanical properties will be tuneable by the crosslinking density. Such novel biomaterials and scaffolds that are built with additive manufacturing principles would overcome current major limitations in the field of soft-tissue engineering.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants