Biodegradable Polymers for Electrospun Biomedical Constructs: A Comparative Analysis of Synthetic and Natural Fibre-Forming Polymers
Abstract
The performance of an electrospun biomedical construct is determined less by the spinning parameters than by the polymer from which it is made, yet polymer selection in the literature is usually justified by precedent rather than by a systematic comparison. This review compares eight fibre-forming polymers used in electrospun biomedical constructs — four synthetics (poly (lactic acid), poly (glycolic acid), polycaprolactone, poly (ethylene terephthalate)) and four naturals (chitosan, collagen, alginate, silk fibroin) — across four property groups: thermal and processing behaviour, degradation kinetics and products, biological interaction, and solvent requirements. Reported values are collected in a common format and three derived indicators are introduced: the thermal processing window, the ratio of resorption time to the typical healing period of the target tissue, and the presence or absence of cell-adhesion motifs. The analysis shows that the synthetic polyesters offer a wide and reproducible processing window but a fixed degradation rate and acidic degradation products, whereas the natural polymers offer favourable biological interaction but, with one exception, either degrade too quickly or cannot be spun without a carrier. Silk fibroin is identified as the only polymer whose degradation rate spans the full range required by the reported applications — from weeks to a year — while its degradation products remain metabolisable, and the practical cost of this advantage is quantified as the carrier fraction required for stable jet formation.
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