Preparation and characterization of electrospun poly(L-lactic acid-co-succinic acid-co-1,4-butane diol) fibrous membranes

Poly(L-lactic acid-co-succinic acid-co-1,4-butane diol) (PLASB) was synthesized by direct condensation copolymerization of L-lactic acid (LA), succinic acid (SA), and 1,4-butanediol (BD) in the bulk using titanium(IV) butoxide as a catalyst. The weight-average molecular weight of PLASB was 2.1 X 10(5) when the contents of SA and BD were each 0.5 mol/100 mol of LA. Electrospinning was used to fabricate porous membranes from this newly synthesized bioabsorbable PLASB dissolved in mixed solvents of methylene chloride and dimethylformamide. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images indicated that the fiber diameters and nanostructured morphologies of the electrospun membranes depended on the processing parameters, such as the solvent ratio and the polymer concentration. By adjusting both the solvent mixture ratio and the polymer concentration, we could fabricate uniform nanofiber non-woven membranes. Cell proliferation on the electrospun porous PLASB membranes was evaluated using mouse fibroblast cells; we compare these results with those of the cell responses on bulk PLASB films.