Study On The Preparation And Properties Of Zein Composite Nanofibrous Membranes

In this thesis, the electrospun Nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA)/zein composite nanofibrous membranes with improved tensile strength were fabricated through addition of poly(lactide-co-glycolide)(PLGA) in diverse composite mode and different mass ratio of (nHA/zein)/PLGA. This paper aims to prepare nHA/zein composite nanofibrous membranes with nHA content as much as possible and good mechanical properties, to obtain composite nanofibrous membrane scaffold which possess a better cytocompatibility and has potential in the application as tissue engineering scaffold depending on biological evaluation.NHA/zein composite nanofibrous membranes with different nHA content were prepared via electrospinning, and their morphology, structure, hydrophilicity and mechanical properties were characterized and tested. The results showed that the degrees of aggregation of nHA rise and the mechanical properties decrease with addition of nHA in the fibrous membranes. The content of nHA was made at20%in accordance with experimental result above.Composite nanofibrous membranes which contain three constituents of nHA, zein, PLGA were fabricated by compositing PLGA into nHA/zein composite nanofibrous membranes in diverse composite mode and different mass ratio. Firstly,(nHA/zein)/PLGA hybrid nanofibrous membranes were fabricated via hybrid electrospinning. Its tensile failure stress, tensile failure strain, Young’s modulus reached their maximum values of15.0MPa,145%,136MPa respectively at (nHA/zein)/PLGA ratio of70/30. Further more, a series of nHA/zein/PLGA composite nanofibrous membranes were fabricated via blend electrospinning. And its tensile failure stress and Young’s modulus reached their maximum values of24.4MPa and194MPa when (nHA/zein)/PLGA ratio was60/40. At last,(nHA/zein)-PLGA shell-core structured composite nanofibrous membranes were fabricated via coaxial electrospinning, and had the highest tensile failure stress and Young’s modulus,15.8MPa and116MPa respectively, at (nHA/zein)/PLGA ratio of70/30. The tensile failure stress and Young’s modulus of the shell-core structured composite nanofibrous membranes were gradually increased after mixing a small amount of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs) into the core PLGA solution, which indicated that MWNTs make a different in enhancing the (nHA/zein)-PLGA shell-core structured composite nanofibrous membranes.In the end of the thesis, the biological properties of the electrospun composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds were investigated through in vitro cell culture experiment. The results showed that the MG63human osteosarcoma cells adhered and proliferated successfully on nHA/zein composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds,(nHA/zein)/PLGA hybrid nanofibrous membrane scaffolds, nHA/zein/PLGA composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds,(nHA/zein)-PLGA shell-core structured composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds and (nHA/zein)-(MWNTs/PLGA) shell-core structured composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds, which demonstrated that nHA/zein composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds have a good prospect in tissue engineering scaffolds. The addition of PLGA, meanwhile, improved the mechanical properties of nHA/zein composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds and kept its good cytocompatibility, and shell-core structure showed distinct advantage, which expand the range of application of nHA/zein composite nanofibrous membrane scaffolds in the fields of tissue engineering.