Electrospun graphene oxide/polymeric nanocomposites for eardrum replacements

Abstract

The development of structures and devices with enhanced acousto-mechanical properties is a topic of interest in engineering, especially in the biomedical field. A case study is the reconstruction of the tympanic membrane after partial or complete damage, such as from chronic suppurative otitis media, which is the leading cause of infectious diseases in children. In this work, we developed graphene-oxide (GO) nanocomposite polymeric scaffolds fabricated via electrospinning to assess their potential suitability as substitutes of the eardrum. To evaluate the structural influence of GO on the fibrous mesh, we performed a characterization in terms of wettability, mechanical properties, and surface morphology. Moreover, a finite-element model of the middle ear was employed to assess the acousto-mechanical behavior of the eardrum upon application of the developed scaffolds. We observed that GO influenced the morphology of the fibrous scaffolds by increasing the mean diameter of the fibers, their stiffness and strength, while decreasing the water contact angle, thus making the structures more hydrophilic. From the acoustic standpoint, the simulations showed that GO does not significantly affect sound transmission, except for PVDF-based structures, for which GO slightly improves the behavior only up to 2 kHz, but with a suboptimal performance at higher frequencies. Our results open to the development of fibrous nanocomposite polymeric scaffolds with an enhanced acoustic behavior for structural applications not limited to bioengineering.