Electro-conductive carbon nanofibers containing ferrous sulfate for bone tissue engineering

The application of electroactive scaffolds can be promising for bone tissue engineering applications. In the current paper, we aimed to fabricate an electro-conductive scaffold based on carbon nanofibers (CNFs) containing ferrous sulfate. FeSO4·7H2O salt with different concentrations 5, 10, and 15 wt%, were blended with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymer as the precursor and converted to Fe2O3/CNFs nanocomposite by electrospinning and heat treatment. The characterization was conducted using SEM, EDX, XRD, FTIR, and Raman methods. The results showed that the incorporation of Fe salt induces no adverse effect on the nanofibers' morphology. EDX analysis confirmed that the Fe ions are uniformly dispersed throughout the CNF mat. FTIR spectroscopy showed the interaction of Fe salt with PAN polymer. Raman spectroscopy showed that the incorporation of FeSO4·7H2O reduced the ID/IG ratio, indicating more ordered carbon in the synthesized nanocomposite. Electrical resistance measurement depicted that, although the incorporation of ferrous sulfate reduced the electrical conductivity, the conductive is suitable for electrical stimulation. The in vitro studies revealed that the prepared nanocomposites were cytocompatible and only negligible toxicity (less than 10%) induced by CNFs/Fe2O3 fabricated from PAN FeSO4·7H2O 15%. Although various nanofibrous composite fabricated with Fe NPs have been evaluated for tissue engineering applications, CNFs exhibited promising properties, such as excellent mechanical strength, biocompatibility, and electrical conductivity. These results showed that the fabricated nanocomposites could be applied as the bone tissue engineering scaffold.