A Review of the Effect of Processing Variables on the Fabrication of Electrospun Nanofibers for Drug Delivery Applications

Table 1

Solvent properties and the resulting fiber morphology.

Solvent	Boiling point (°C)	Other properties	Fiber morphology	Ref.
DCM	39.8	Low dielectric constant, high surface tension	Beaded, large diameter	[77, 85]
Chloroform	61.2	High intrinsic viscosity	Beaded at very low polymer concentration, smooth at higher concentration	[86]
Methanol	64.7	High dielectric constant	Small fiber diameter with ↑ methanol concentration until 50% then ↑ fiber diameter	[77]
THF	66	High dipole moment, good conductivity	Smooth and beaded, ribbon-like, high pore density	[78, 87]
Ethyl acetate	77.1	High dielectric constant, fair conductivity	Smooth and beaded, ribbon-like	[87]
Ethanol	78.3	Low surface tension, high intrinsic viscosity	Smooth, large diameter	[83, 85, 86]
MEK	79.6	High dipole moment, good conductivity	Flat, ribbon-like, very few beads	[87]
Dichloroethane	83.5	High dipole moment, fair conductivity	Smooth and beaded, C-shaped	[87]
Water	100	Low intrinsic viscosity	Beaded, small diameter	[83, 86]
DMF	153	High dipole moment, high conductivity, low intrinsic viscosity	Smooth and beaded, round	[86, 87]

(DCM: dichloromethane; THF: tetrahydrofuran; MEK: methyl ethyl ketone; DMF: dimethylformamide).