Manufacturing Cyclodextrin Fibers Using Water

Cyclodextrins are a class of biocompatible and highly water-soluble oligosaccharide polymers, with vast applications in industries ranging from drug delivery to agriculture. Currently, most fiber production relies on using environmentally unfriendly organic solvents and polymeric additions. Cyclodextrins are seldom used on their own without a carrier polymer, however in this work, (2-hydroxypropyl)-beta-cyclodextrin) fibers are successfully produced with water, as the green solvent with pressurized gyration and electrospinning, without using a carrier polymer. The average fiber diameter of the pressurized gyration produces fibers ranged between 5.5 and 5.8 mu m, while the average fiber diameter of the electrospun fibers ranged between only 183 and 305 nm. These findings show the thinnest diameter of pure cyclodextrin fibers achieved in current literature. Both techniques have specific advantages, such as electrospinning being able to produce nanofibers, while pressurized gyration has productivity of over 1.5 g min(-1). Here, a pioneering study into the production of cyclodextrin-only fibers with two different fiber production techniques and the creation of a cyclodextrin-super-mat that combines both types of fibers is presented.

Automated summary

This study successfully produced pure cyclodextrin fibers using environmentally friendly water as a solvent, with the combination of pressurized gyration and electrospinning techniques, and created a cyclodextrin-super-mat that combines both types of fibers.