Fluorinated Biomaterials: Fluorinated Nanofibers for Potential Biomedical Applications

The application of supercritical carbon dioxide has been attracting more attention in the synthesis of biodegradable polymers. Highly pure products without residues can be recovered after the polymerization in supercritical carbon dioxide. In this book, the synthesis steps of polyester-based biodegradable polymers and the production of nanofiber scoffolds from these polymers are reported in details. For the synthesis of polyester-based biodegradable polymers, three types of block fluorinated poly(L-lactide-co-?-caprolactone) are synthesized in supercritical carbon dioxide using reactive stabilizers including inner fluorinated segment and polylactide or polycaprolactone side chains. Perfluoro polyethers can be used as blood substitutes to deliver oxygen to tissues so that these materials are promising for biomedical applications. For the production of nanofiber scoffolds, electrospinning process is used to fabricate nanofiber scaffolds from synthesized biodegradable materials. Material characterization is carried out by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, gel permeation chromatography,optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.