Page 9 - IJB-9-6

International

Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Electrospinning polyethylene terephthalate

glycol

Mohamed H. Hassan *, Abdalla M. Omar , Evangelos Daskalakis , Bruce Grieve ,
1
1
2
1
and Paulo J.D.S. Bartolo 1,3
1 Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester, Manchester,
M13 9PL, United Kingdom
2 Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester
M13 9PL, United Kingdom
3
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) is a difficult-to-spin material, and no
previous papers have reported the correct conditions to create PETG meshes. To
address this issue, a preliminary study on the solubility and electrospinnability
of PETG using a range of solvent system was conducted and a Teas graph was
established to select the ideal solvent system. Based on these preliminary results,
electrospun PETG fibers were produced using a highly volatile binary solvent system
consisting of dichloromethane (DCM) and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). Produced meshes
were extensively characterized, and the results demonstrated for the first time the
ability of electrospun PETG meshes to support the inoculation and germination of
yellow rust spores, thus confirming that PETG is an ideal material to be used for the
*Corresponding author: fabrication of agriculture biosensors. The results also showed that the best solvent
Mohamed H. Hassan
(mohamed.hassan@manchester. split was 85/15 (DCM/TFA).
ac.uk)
Citation: Hassan MH, Omar AM, Keywords: Electrospinning; Biomaterial; Yellow rust; Polyethylene terephthalate
Daskalakis E, et al., 2023,
Electrospinning polyethylene glycol; bioactive
terephthalate glycol. Int J Bioprint,
9(6): 0024.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.0024
Received: January 26, 2023 1. Introduction
Accepted: March 05, 2023
Published Online: June 21, 2023 Solution electrospinning is a simple electrostatic and versatile technique to produce
micro- to nano-scale fiber meshes exhibiting large surface area to volume ratio [1-4] . In
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article this process, a polymeric solution is ejected from a needle tip, positioned at a specific
distributed under the terms of the height over a grounded collector, by applying a high electrical field . Typically,
[5]
Creative Commons Attribution an electrospinning system consists of a high-voltage power supply, a capillary that
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, includes the material container and a spinneret, and a grounded metal collector. The
provided the original work is process starts by applying an electrical field between the needle tip and the metallic
properly cited. collector. A material droplet is formed at the end of the needle tip because of surface
Publisher’s Note: AccScience tension and viscoelastic stresses . When the electrostatic forces overcome the surface
[6]
Publishing remains neutral with tension of the material, the material droplet approaches a cone shape (Taylor cone),
regard to jurisdictional claims in [7]
published maps and institutional and a charged jet is ejected . Then, the jet follows a path that is usually characterized
affiliations. by an initial stable region, where the fiber is parallel to the direction of the jet and its

Volume 9 Issue 6 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.0024