Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 15710–15716 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings 2214-7853 © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of INN International Conference/Workshop on “Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine’’ NTNM2017. NTNM2017 Mechanical and piezoelectric characterizations of electrospun PVDF-nanosilica fibrous scaffolds for biomedical applications Seyyed Arash Haddadi, Saeed Ghaderi, Majed Amini, Ahmad Ramazani S.A. * a Chemical & Petroleum Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Abstract The effects of hydrophilic and hydrophobic nanosilica (SiO 2 ) on the morphology, mean diameter distribution of fibers, mechanical and piezoelectric properties of poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibers were studies. We prepared Nanofibers by the electrospinning of PVDF solutions containing 1.5 wt. % both hydrophilic and hydrophobic nano-SiO 2 loadings. Morphology and diameter distribution of the electrospun nanofibers were studied using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) analysis. Tensile test was used to study the effect of both types of nanosilica on the tensile strength, young’s modulus and strain at break. Piezoelectric characterization of the electrospun fibers were determined using calculation of the output voltages under certain loading force. Results showed that the fibers diameter and mechanical properties of the nanofibers increase in presence of hydrophilic SiO 2 nanoparticles. Furthermore, the output voltages of the electrospun fibers demonstrated that both types of silica could considerably amplify electroactive properties of PVDF fibers. However, the results for PVDF fibers containing the hydrophilic silica nanoparticle were more highlighted. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of INN International Conference/Workshop on “Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine’’ NTNM2017. Keywords: Piezoelectric; Nanosilica; Poly(vinylidene fluoride); Scaffold; Biomedical applications 1. Introduction Poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) with a simple chemical formula, -CH 2 -CF 2 -, has useful special properties such as the remarkable antioxidation, outstanding mechanical properties, high chemical resistance, maintaining cellular * Corresponding author. Tel.: +9821-66166405; Fax: +9821-66166404. E-mail address: ramazani@sharif.edu