Electrospinning-electrospraying of poly(acid lactic) solutions in binary chloroform/formic acid and chloroform/acetic acid mixtures

Abstract Poly(acid lactic) (PLA) is a synthetic, cytocompatible, and biodegradable biopolymer. It provides materials for drug delivery, food packing, and tissue engineering applications. Here, we provide the electrospinning of PLA (Mw = 26,000 Da) solutions (20–35% wt/vol) in binary chloroform/formic acid mixtures. The formic acid content between 20 and 40 vol% support smooth PLA fibers (average size between 231 and 637 nm). The electrospraying of PLA solutions (10–25% wt/vol) in chloroform creates smooth microparticles (average size between 1.0 and 11.4 μm). Contents of acetic acid higher than 10 vol% in binary chloroform/acetic acid mixtures prevent the formation of microparticles. Viscosity and conductivity measurements were carried out with the polymer solutions and the binary solvent mixtures, respectively. By modulating the polymer concentration and solvent system, we control the process, achieving electrospinning or electrospraying. Scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy characterized the PLA materials. This study reports accessible approaches to support micro- and nano-sized PLA materials.