Block copolymers are smart materials capable of separating into well-defined phase structures, offering interesting properties such as well-define surface chemistries. These novel materials find applications in a broad range of fields as gas separating membranes, substrates for catalysis or tissue engineering substrates. However, fabrication of 3-dinemsional fibrous materials with well-defined phase separations usually requires tedious processes such as annealing, co-extrusion or spinning with combination of solvents that drive the phase separation.<br/>Here, we present a simple, one-step method for the fabrication of as-spun phase separating fibers consisting of polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) with a structure that spans homogeneously along the material. Fibers with a core-shell, body center cubic (BCC) or gyroid structures can be prepared at glance by just introducing small modifications on the solution concentration or flow rate during the spinning process. Moreover, the surface chemistry of these fibers can also be tuned in a spatially controlled maner by chemical modification of the polyethylene oxide phase, via end-group functionalization and click-chemistry. We thus synthesized and fabricated phase separating fibrous scaffolds presenting different biological cues (peptide sequences) that represent an interesting platform to study and tune biomaterial-cell insteractions that determine cell morphology and ultimately cell fate.

Electrspun phase separating block-copolymer fibers for biological applications

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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