Nanofiber Scaffolds Based on 2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate Utilizable for Spinal Cord Injury Repair

Nanotechnology is one of the rapidly growing scientific disciplines due to its enormous potential in creating novel materials that have advanced utilization. Nanofibres, thanks to their high surface area, find applications especially as adsorption layers and filtering media. For biomedicine they can serve as smart filters (selective filtration of bacteria, air filtration) or in tissue engineering as wound dressing (skin defects and burns) or as media for in vitro cultivation of cells. Nanofibres are usually formed by the electrospinning technique. The electrospinning is a versatile process used to prepare submicron-sized fibers from various polymers dissolved in volatile solvents.The aim of the work was electrospinning of biocompatible polymers based on HEMA and preparation of submicron fibres (nanofibers) for biomedicinal applications. Syntheses of PHEMA and the copolymer of HEMA and EOEMA for electrospinning and their characterization by viscometry, molecular weights are described. The relation of the quantities to the electrospinning of the polymers is discussed.