Effect of silane crosslinking and cellulose nanocrystals on the morphology of electrospun PLA nanofibers

Biodegradable nanofibrous mats fabricated by electrospinning are commonly used in tissue engineering. In this work, vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) was grafted onto poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and the silane grafted PLA was subsequently applied in electrospinning process. Electrospun nanofibrous mats based on PLA/nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) and PLA-g-silane/NCC nanocomposites were fabricated and immersed in hot water (70 °C) for crosslinking of silane grafted PLA. It was found that introducing NCC to the samples cause to reduction in fiber diameter and the other hand the silane crosslinking of PLA increase the mean fiber diameter