(a) A diagram of the coaxial electrospinning setup and (b, c) photographs of the PVC-coated concentric spinneret. When coaxial electrospinning was performed, two syringe pumps were used to drive the shell and core fluids independently (Figure 2a). An alligator clip was used to connect the metal part of the PVC-coated spinneret to the high-voltage power supply (Figure 2b).

With an applied voltage of 15 kV and shell and core flow rates of 0.3 and 0.7 mL h−1, respectively, a successful electrospinning process was observed. A straight thinning jet was emitted from the compound Luminespib supplier Taylor cone and was then followed by a bending and whipping instability region with loops of increasing Citarinostat research buy size (Figure 2c). Increasing the applied voltage to

17 kV resulted in a dividing of the straight fluid jet (Figure 2d). This complicated the process, increasing its instability and compromising the preparation of high quality of core-shell structures. Hence, the applied voltage was fixed at 15 kV. Figure 2 Photographs of the coaxial electrospinning setup and the optimization of parameters. (a) The apparatus used in this work, (b) the connection of the spinneret with the syringe pumps and power supply, (c) a typical coaxial process under an applied voltage of 15 kV with shell and core flow rates of 0.3 and 0.7 mL h−1, respectively, Fosbretabulin (d) the divided electrospinning process which was observed at 17 kV, (e) FESEM images of the F1 nanofibers resulting from single-fluid electrospinning of the shell fluid alone, and (f) FESEM images of fibers (F3) generated in a coaxial process with shell and core flow rates of 0.4 to 0.6 mL h−1, respectively. For the preparation of drug-loaded nanofibers using a single-fluid electrospinning process, the selection of the solvent is often an important factor. It

must meet three conditions: (i) the polymer should have good electrospinnability when dissolved in it, (ii) sufficient drug should dissolve in it to give a therapeutically useful drug content, and (iii) the resultant drug/polymer solution should be amenable to electrospinning. Hence, a mixed solvent is frequently used for generating Staurosporine order monolithic drug-loaded nanofibers. The PVP shell matrix has good filament-forming properties in a wide variety of solvents such as ethanol, methanol, or chloroform. However, quercetin has poor solubility in all these solvents, instead dissolving easily in aprotic solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide and DMAc. Unfortunately, PVP cannot be electrospun using these solvents because of their high boiling points. To balance these factors, a mixed solvent containing 30% DMAc and 70% ethanol was selected for the shell fluid. Although an electrospinning process could be observed when a voltage of 15 kV was applied to the shell fluid alone, solid nanofibers could not be obtained because the DMAc did not completely evaporate. After removal of the DMAc in a vacuum drying oven, a solid film was obtained, as depicted in Figure 2e.