• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.334-339
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• 2008

Recently electro spinning is a widely used simple technique to prepared micro- to nanometer-sized fiber of various polymers. In general, a normal multiple-nozzle electro spinning system has been difficult to achieve high production-rate fabricating micro/nanofibers due to the interference of electric field between individual nozzles in the process. To reduce the interference effect of electric field between nozzles, we developed a multi-nozzle electrospinning system supplemented with auxiliary electrodes. Poly($\varepsilon$-carprolactone)(PCL), which has good mechanical property and biocompatibility, was electrospun by the multi-nozzle electro spinning system. Electrospinnability, product rate, and size uniformity of spun fibers for the system with and without auxiliary electrodes were characterized. As a result, the multi-nozzle electrospinning system supplemented with auxiliary electrodes provides excellently stable processability and showed high mass productivity of PCL-nanofibers relative to a normal multi-nozzle electro spinning system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.599-600
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• 2008

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1998 no.11
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• pp.229-230
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• 1998

Triblock copolymers from poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and D,L-lactide or $\varepsilon$-carprolactone were synthesized to prepare semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN) with chitosan by U.V. irradiation method. Then, solute permeation through these semi-IPNs hydrogels were investigated. The structures of semi-IPNs were confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy and wide angle X-ray diffractometer (WAXD). Equilibrium water content (EWC) of these hydrogels was in the range of 67-75%. The crystallinity, thermal properties and mechanical properties of semi-IPNs hydrogels were studied. All the hydrogels revealed a remarkable decrease in crystallinity as compared with PEG macromer itself. The tensile strengths of semi-IPNs hydrogels in dry state were rather high, but those of hydrogels in wet state decreased drastically. The permeabilities of solutes of hydrogels followed the swelling behaviors and were regulated by solute size.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.688-692
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• 2007

The hydrogen-bonding induced alternating multilayer thin films of dendrimers and block copolymer micelles were demonstrated. The block copolymer micelles derived from amphiphilic poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)block-$poly({\varepsilon}-carprolactone)$ (PEtOz-PCL) in aqueous phase have a core-shell structure with a mean hydrodynamic diameter of 26 nm. The hydrogen bonding between the PEtOz outer shell of micelle and the carboxyl unit of poly(amidoamine) dendrimer of generation 4.5 (PAMAM-4.5G) at pH 3 was utilized as a driving force for the layerby-layer alternating deposition. The multilayer thin film was fabricated on the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) thin film spin-coated on silicon wafer or glass substrate by the alternate dipping of PEtOz-PCL micelles and PAMAM dendrimers in aqueous solution at pH 3. The formation of multilayer thin film was characterized by using ellipsometry, UV-vis spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The PEtOz outer shell of PEtOz-PCL micelle provided the pH-responsive hydrogen bonding sites with peripheral carboxylic acids of PAM AM dendrimer. The multilayer thin film was reversibly removed after dipping in aqueous solution at $pH{\geq}5.6$ due to dissociation of the hydrogen bonding between PEtOz shell of PEtOz-PCL micelle and peripheral carboxyl units of PAMAM dendrimer.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.219-223
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• 2009

The nanofibers fabricated by using an electrohydrodynamic process has been used as various applications, such as nano-device, filtering system, protective clothes, wound dressing, and drug delivery system (DDS). Of these applications, the DDS should be needed to minimize side effects of drugs, maximize the properties of medicine, and efficiently deliver the required amount of drugs to the diseased area. In this paper, by using the electro spinning process, which is one of electrohydrodynamic processes, two different types, polycarprolactone and poly(ethylene oxide)/Rhodamine B, of electrospun mats were fabricated layer by layer and the release behavior of Rhodamine B was characterized with time. In addition, to show the feasibility of DDS of this type, we tested release behavior of a peptide of the nanofiber system, a PCL/(Peptide+PEO)/PCL nanofiber mat. The released peptide did not loss biological activities. From these results, we believe that the layered nanofiber mat as a DDS has enough function of a new drug delivery system.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.163-168
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• 2008

Biomedical scaffold for tissue regeneration was fabricated by one of rapid prototyping processes, bioplotting system, with a biodegradable and biocompatible poly($\varepsilon$-carprolactone)(PCL). Through dynamic mechanical test, it was observed that the PCL scaffold manufactured by the bioplotting process has the superior mechanical properties compared to the conventional scaffold fabricated by a salt-leaching process, and the plotted scaffold could be employed as a potential scaffold to regenerating hard and soft tissue. The plotted scaffold was consisted of porous structures. which were interconnected with each pore to help cells be easily adhered and proliferated in the wall of pore tunnels, and metabolic nutrients can be transported within the matrix. By using the plotting system, we could adjust the pore size, porosity, strand pitch, and, strand diameter of PCL scaffolds, which were important parameters to control mechanical properties of the scaffolds, and consequently we could determine that the mechanically controlled scaffolds could be used as a matching scaffold for any required mechanical properties of the target organ. The fabricated 3D PCL scaffold showed enough possibility as a 3D biomedical scaffold, which was cell-cultured with chondrocytes.