Conformal Fabrication of an Electrospun Nanofiber Mat on a 3D Ear Cartilage-Shaped Hydrogel Collector Based on Hydrogel-Assisted Electrospinning

Abstract Electrospinning is a common and versatile process to produce nanofibers deposit them on collector as two-dimensional nanofiber mat or three-dimensional (3D) macroscopic arrangement. However, 3D electroconductive collectors with complex geometries, including protruded, curved, recessed regions, generally caused hampering of conformal deposition incomplete covering electrospun nanofibers. In this study, we suggested fabrication an ear cartilage-shaped hydrogel based hydrogel-assisted electrospinning. To relieve the influence flattened protruded parts by exploiting flexibility hydrogel. We found that technique could significantly decrease unevenly focused electric field, geometries collector, alleviating standard deviation more than 70% through numerical simulation. Furthermore, it was experimentally confirmed conformally covered uniform thickness, which not achieved original collector. Given study established electrospinning collectors, will contribute various studies related electrospinning, tissue engineering, drug/cell delivery, environmental filter, clothing.