The enhanced encapsulation capacity of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane-based copolymers for the fabrication of electrospun core/shell fibers

This paper reports the use of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-based copolymers to stabilize the core/shell interface for the facile fabrication of electrospun core/shell fibers. For the poly[(propylmethacryl- heptaisobutyl-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane)-co-(methyl methacrylate)] (POSS-MMA)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) system, the bicontinuity of hybrid core/shell fibers can be tuned by controlling the phase separation of POSS-MMA/PCL in electrospinning solutions and therefore the size of PCL-in-POSS-MMA emulsion droplets. Our results demonstrate the enhanced encapsulation capacity of POSS-MMA copolymers as shell materials. Taking advantage of the rapid advancement of POSS-based copolymer synthesis, this study can potentially be generalized to guide the fabrication of various other POSS-based core/shell nano-/microstructures by using single-nozzle electrospinning or coaxial electrospinning.