Electrospun fibers of poly(butylene succinate–co–dilinoleic succinate) and its blend with poly(glycerol sebacate) for soft tissue engineering applications Liliana Liverani a,⇑ , Agnieszka Piegat b , Agata Niemczyk b , Miroslawa El Fray b,⇑ , Aldo R. Boccaccini a a Institute of Biomaterials, Department for Materials Science and Engineering, University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Cauerstr. 6, 91058 Erlangen, Germany b Division of Biomaterials and Microbiological Technologies, Polymer Institute, West Pomeranian University of Technology, 45 Piastów Ave, 70-311 Szczecin, Poland article info Article history: Received 26 February 2016 Received in revised form 1 June 2016 Accepted 9 June 2016 Available online 10 June 2016 Keywords: Electrospinning Poly(glycerol sebacate) Poly(butylene succinate-dilinoleic succinate) Soft tissue engineering abstract A new copolymer poly(butylene succinate-dilinoleic succinate) (PBS-DLS) has been success- fully synthesized and its suitability for the fabrication of electrospun fiber mats has been investigated for the obtaining both electrospun scaffolds of neat PBS-DLS and also in blend with poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS). After optimizing the electrospinning process for both neat and PGS/PBS-DLS (ratio 1:2) blend materials, homogeneous fiber mats have been obtained with an average fiber diameter of 2.5 ± 0.5 lm and 2.0 ± 0.2 lm, for neat and blend mats, respectively. Mechanical properties and degradation behavior in PBS were investi- gated to evaluate their suitability for soft tissue engineering applications. A feasibility study of the obtained electrospun mats functionalization was performed and positive results were obtained, demonstrating the versatility and suitability of PGS/PBS-DLS electrospun fibers as candidate for soft tissue engineering applications. Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) is a biodegradable poly(alkylene dicarboxylate) widely used in the last decades due to its mechanical properties and thermoplastic processability, attracting an interest in particular by its sustainability and low impact on the environment [1,2]. Additionally, PBS properties, including biodegradability can be easily tailored either by blending it [3,4] or by copolymer- ization with different amounts and type of components [1,5]. One of the most common used comonomers for synthesis of PBS copolymers are adipic acid [6], terephthalic acid [7], methyl succinic acid [8], dilinoleic acid [9], lactic acid [10] and 1,3-propanediol [11]. Moreover, PBS and its copolymers, obtained by copolymerization with other dicarboxylic acids or diols, are reported to degrade faster by bio- and enzymatic degradation compared to the hydrolysis process at neutral pH (without enzyme), thus they are suitable for several applications [1], such as biomedical applications [12–15] and also as controlled-release fertilizers [16,17]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2016.06.009 0014-3057/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: liliana.liverani@fau.de (L. Liverani), miroslawa.elfray@zut.edu.pl (M. El Fray). European Polymer Journal 81 (2016) 295–306 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect European Polymer Journal journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/europolj