Design of Electrospun Hybrid Nanofibrous Materials for Environmental,
Catalytic, and Biomedical Applications
Xiangyang Shi
College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
Email: xshi@dhu.edu.cn
Abstract:
Electrospinning is a powerful technique to produce fibers with a diameter ranging from tens of
nanometers to several micrometers. Compared with single-component nanofibers, composite or
hybrid nanofibers are promising due to the unique properties possessed by both the host and the
guest materials. Doping nanoparticles (NPs) or nanotubes (NTs) having excellent optical,
mechanical, electrical, or catalytic properties within polymer nanofibers makes it possible to
produce functional nanofibers with promising applications, particularly in the fields of
environmental, catalytic, and biomedical applications. This talk presents the results obtained in our
group in the past several years in the formation of various organic/inorganic hybrid electrospun
nanofibers for environmental, catalytic, and biomedical applications. Starting from the preparation
of electrospun polyacrylic acid (PAA)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI)/PVA
nanofibers for physical absorption of heavy metal ions and dyes, we then used PAA/PVA and
PEI/PVA nanofibers as nanoreactors to immobilize zerovalent Fe nanoparticles (NPs) or Fe/Pd
(Fe/Ni) bimetallic NPs for environmental remediation applications, to immobilize Au or Pd NPs for
catalytic applications. Alternatively, preformed metal NPs can also be assembled onto electrospun
nanofibers for catalytic applications. Finally, we used electrospun poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)
nanofibers incorporated with different NPs (halloysite nanotubes, nanohydroxyapatite, laponite
nanodisks) for tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. The incorporation of these
inorganic components within PLGA nanofibers is helpful to promote protein adsorption onto the
nanofibers for enhanced cellular response, to stimulate osteogenic differentiation of stem cells, and
to provide a double carrier system to significantly avoid the burst release profile of the encapsulated
drug molecules.
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