Assessment of the parameters influencing the fiber characteristics of electrospun poly(ethyl methacrylate) membranes

This work evaluates the influence of electrospinning process parameters on the mean diameter and standard deviation of fiber diameters in electrospun poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA). Processing conditions were selected using Taguchi’s statistical method. Oriented and unoriented electrospun mats with good mechanical properties were produced and demonstrated with tensile stress–strain diagrams. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments showed that the polymer chains were forced into non-equilibrium conformations due to electrospinning. Enthalpic recovery during a heating scan is shown by an endothermic peak in the initial DSC heating scan that disappears in subsequent heating scans. An increase in the glass transition temperature with respect to PEMA films shows that the polymer is not equilibrated by heating above glass transition. Cell attachment was tested with MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblastic cells cultured for short time periods on the electrospun mats. It is shown that the cells present less extended morphology with more diffuse perimetral focal adhesions than cells cultured on flat substrates. A tendency of cells to align in the direction of the substrate fibers in oriented electrospun membranes was also found.