Summary
This study shows how to electrospin elastomeric fibres from epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) blended with a small amount of crystalline polylactic acid (PLA). On its own, the rubber does not provide the solution properties needed for stable electrospinning; adding a minor fraction of PLA made the blend spinnable and established the right operating conditions. To improve compatibility between the two polymers, the authors introduced a graft-copolymer compatibiliser (ENR grafted with a monoamine-terminated polypropylene glycol), which noticeably reduced the surface roughness of the resulting fibres. The outcome is a set of biocompatible, potentially biodegradable elasticated nanofibres, with the chemical modification also expected to improve the environmental degradation behaviour of natural rubber.