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Effect of Porous and Nonporous Polycaprolactone Fiber Meshes on CaCO3Crystallization Through a Gas Diffusion Method

Authors :
Sepúlveda, Felipe
Butto, Nicole
Arias, José Luis
Yazdani-Pedram, Mehrdad
Szewczyk, Piotr K.
Gruszczynski, Adam
Stachewicz, Urszula
Neira-Carrillo, Andrónico
Source :
Crystal Growth & Design; August 2020, Vol. 20 Issue: 8 p5610-5625, 16p
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

The effect of nonporous (NP-PCL) and porous (P-PCL) fibrous polycaprolactone (PCL) meshes, used as templates, on in vitroCaCO3crystallization via a gas diffusion (GD) method at 20 °C for 24 h was studied. The nonporous random (NPR-PCL) and porous random (PR-PCL) and the nonporous-aligned (NPA-PCL) and porous-aligned (PA-PCL) fibrous PCL meshes were directly spun on flat or rotary collectors from 18% PCL solutions using ethyl acetate/acetone or ethyl acetate/dimethyl sulfoxide, respectively. The morphology and type of CaCO3crystal grown on PCL fiber scaffolds were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), contact angle measurements, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), focused ion beam combined with scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The PCL fibers distributions affected the nucleation and stabilized calcite and vaterite polymorphs of CaCO3with different crystal population densities. The crystal density of vaterite was higher than calcite (2:1) when the NPA-PCL and PA-PCL fibers were used as a template, but calcite predominated (2:1) on P-PCL fiber mesh with respect to the NP-PCL fiber mesh. We found that CaCO3crystals covered the surface of PCL fibers, and some of them grown from inside of the PCL fibers showed that PCL fibers were occluded inside the CaCO3crystals during the GD crystallization. The nano- and microscale topological features of PCL scaffolds control the diffusion of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas through PCL fiber meshes in the soaking of PCL meshes into a calcium chloride (CaCl2) solution during the GD crystallization affecting subsequently the nucleation and growth of CaCO3crystals. Indeed, pore size feature of the micrometric A-PCL and nanometric R-PCL fiber meshes affected the intensities of the crystallographic faces of calcite and vaterite as observed by XRD. Contact angle measurements of the aqueous and crystallization liquid droplet on NPR-PCL, PR-PCL and A-PCL fibrous showed different hydrophobic character of the PCL meshes. This study shows the role of the nano- and microscale topological features and the presence of pores on PCL fiber scaffolds on the mineralization behavior of CaCO3deposited on R-PCL and A-PCL fiber scaffolds, and by this approach various aspects of controlled CaCO3crystallization such as nucleation and crystal growth of biomaterials based on CaCO3can be studied with potential biotech applications.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
15287483 and 15287505
Volume :
20
Issue :
8
Database :
Supplemental Index
Journal :
Crystal Growth & Design
Publication Type :
Periodical
Accession number :
ejs53650308
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.0c00803