Optimization of electrospinning parameters for chitosan nanofibres

Abstract

Electrospinning of chitosan, a naturally occurring polysaccharide biopolymer, has been investigated. In this paper, the authors report the optimization of electrospinning process and solution parameters using factorial design approach to obtain uniform chitosan nanofibres. The parameters studied were electric field strength, ratio of solvents - trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)/ dichloromethane (DCM), concentration of chitosan in the spinning solution, their individual and interaction effects on the diameter of nanofibres. The selected parameters were varied at three levels (-1, 0 and +1) using Box and Behnken factorial design. The interaction effect between electric field strength (FS) and concentration of chitosan (CC) as well as that between the ratio of solvents - TFA/DCM (SC) and electric field strength played the most significant role, followed by the concentration of chitosan and lastly by the electric field strength in obtaining uniform nanofibres.