Reducing the content of carrier polymer in pectin nanofibers by electrospinning at low loading followed with selective washing

Nanofibers of natural polymers represent an essential class of materials in biomedicine. Pectin is a plant-sourced anionic polysaccharide widely used in food products and biomedicine owning to its abundance, biocompatibility and inherent bioactivity. However, current electrospun pectin nanofibers are suffered from high content of carrier polymer, which may lead to low integrity and mechanical strength as well as in vivo toxicity. We report here a strategy to reduce the content of carrier polymer, polyethylene oxide (PEO) in our study, in pectin nanofibers, via electrospinning at low loading followed with selective washing. With improved electrospinning condition, we first enabled electrospinning of pectin nanofibers at low PEO loading. Then the PEO was removed by washing with a selective solvent to give pectin nanofibers containing only 1.5% PEO. The strategy was versatile to pectins from various sources and of various degree of esterification. The pectin nanofibers exhibited Young's modulus as high as 358.5   MPa. In view of their rich bioactivity, the pectin nanofibers of low content of carrier polymer are promising materials for a wide range of biomedical applications.