Abstract

“THE POTENTIAL OF NANOFIBERS”: REVIEW ARTICLE

Neha Shetty*, Dipti Waske, Manali Zanzane and Ekta Jadhav

Abstract

Nanofibers are submicron sized fibers whose diameter is 50 - 500 nm, with the prefix nano- meaning a billionth of a basic unit (ten to the minus ninth). Often the diameter is the thickness of several atoms. Nanofibers are not visible under normal microscopes, as their diameter is smaller than the wave length of light. Such exceptionally small fibers can only be seen and photographed by electron microscopes. To help visualize this, imagine that the ratio of the average size of a nanofiber to a football is comparable to the ratio of the size of that same football to the earth. Nanofibers can be utilized in healthcare materials and in future will be utilized in filtration, the environment, cosmetics, medicine, hygiene, energy, IT, nanocomposites, and composites. The current state of electrospun nanofiber-based DDS is focused on drug-loaded nanofiber preparation from pharmaceutical and biodegradable polymers and different types of DDS. However, there are more opportunities to be exploited from the electrospinning process and the corresponding drug-loaded nanofibers for drug delivery.

Keywords: Nanofibers, Electrospinning, Characterization, Applications.