Figure 2:

Schematic of application approaches for nanomaterials used in surgery. (a) Solution blow spinning employs pressure driven flow through a nozzle to generate a collection of fibers with nanoscale diameter and porosity. (b) Electrospinning utilizes a high voltage current and conductive substrate to deposit a nanofiber mat onto a collector and harvested for application to tissue. (c) Hydrogels are synthesized through either combination of a monomer solution with crosslinking agents and initiators or a standalone, neat polymer solution. Injectable hydrogels are ones that display shear thinning behavior and can be injected through a syringe (left). Non-injectable solutions are either mixed in an attached tip of a dual-barrel syringe (middle) or are mixed as bulk solutions in a mold (right) that are then formed for specific application.