I fabricated an electrospun PLGA nanofibers on a foil background. It is not easy to get the intact membrane out of the foil. is a method to separate the membrane from the foil without destroy the membrane?
Dear Yasser,
Attached please find two publications. I have copied part of the experimental methods from one of them and pasted below. This paragraph illustrates a method to separate the membrane from the foil.
1-Electrospinning
The 75/25 poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) (inherent viscosity 0.55–0.75 dL/g, Lactel Biodegradable Polymers, Birmingham, AL) was used for electrospinning as described previously [13]. In brief, PLGA was dissolved in hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP). Aluminum foil was wrapped around the 7.6 cm drum. The polymer solution (7.0 or 6.5 wt% PLGA) was electrospun with a syringe equipped with a 22 gauge steel needle using a 15 kV potential, a throw distance of 15 cm, and a syringe flow rate of 3 mL/h. Random fibers (RF) were electrospun from 6.5 wt% polymer solution on a stationary collector, and aligned fibers (AF) were obtained from 7.0 wt% polymer solution on a rotating drum at a linear velocity of 6.4 m/s to achieve similar diameters with different fiber orientations because fibers generally exhibit a smaller diameter on a rotating collector [13]. After electrospinning, PLGA meshes were air dried for 2 days to remove residual HFIP. Meshes were cut into 15 × 15 mm squares, and then carefully removed from the aluminum foil.
2 Fabrication Of PLGA Nanofibers By Electrospinning
The PLGA nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning process. HFIP was used as a solvent to dissolve PLGA microfibers under gentle stirring to obtain different
concentration ranging from 2 to 7 wt% solution. The polymer solution was placed in a 5 ml plastic syringe fitted to a needle with a tip diameter of 0.4 mm. High voltage of 12 kV was applied to the needle using a high voltage power supply (Gamma High Voltage Research). The ground collection plate of aluminium foil was located at a fixed distance of 10 cm from the needle tip. A syringe pump was used to feed the polymer solution to the needle tip at a feeding rate of 1 ml/hr. The polymer solution formed Taylor cone at the tip of the needle by the combined force of gravity and electrostatic charge. A positively charged jet was formed from the Taylor cone and got sprayed to the grounded aluminium foil target. The nanofibers were collected over the coverslips placed on the aluminium foil. The spun nanofibers were dried under vacuum at room temperature over night. For the characterization, morphology of the electrospun nanofibers was observed using Olympus BX51M Optical microscope at a magnification of 1000X.
Hoping this will be helpful,
Rafik
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