Effect of humidity on the generation and control of the morphology of honeycomb-like polymeric structures by electrospinning

Honeycomb-like 3D polymeric structures are useful to grow cells inside pores or in between nanofibres in cellular containment but their generation and morphology control involves different processing and forming procedures. In this work, using high speed camera footage, we show the dramatic effect of relative humidity (RH) has on the deposition of honeycomb structures using a hydrophilic water-soluble polymer. Approximately 35 mm diameter deposits were generated under several conditions of humidity while all other process parameters were kept constant. The morphology of the structures, i.e., their porosity and nanofibres, were studied and are related to the jet behaviour characteristics to explain why 3D honeycomb structures are obtained under selected optimum humidity conditions. 3D honeycomb structures were obtained only at an optimised 73% RH.