Nanomechanical characterization of electrospun biodegradable vascular scaffolds

Abstract

We proposed a method to determine the mechanical properties of electrospun nanofibers intended for use in vascular tissue engineering. Mechanical properties of poly(l-lactide) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) copolymers and blends which are in fiber form were tested using the nanoindentation technique. Individual nanofibers were prone to give overweighed distributions in terms of E moduli in indentation testing. An increased compressive elastic modulus of 17 MPa was obtained in case of an increasing amount of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) in the fibers. It has also been found that the Hertzian model of compression is not adequate to model the elastic deformation of individual fibers.