Concurrent collection and post-drawing of individual electrospun polymer nanofibers to enhance macromolecular alignment and mechanical properties

POLYMER

卷:103

Article

Brennan, David A.^1,2  Jao, Dave¹  Siracusa, Michael C.²  Wilkinson, Andrew R.²  Hu, Xiao^1,3  Beachley, Vince Z.¹ 

[1] Rowan Univ, Dept Biomed Engn, Glassboro, NJ USA

[2] Rowan Univ, Dept Mech Engn, Glassboro, NJ USA

[3] Rowan Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Glassboro, NJ USA

关键词: Post drawing;    Nanofiber;    Electrospinning;    Polymer;    Polycaprolactone;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.polymer.2016.09.061

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The study reports a nanomanufacturing method that facilitates post-drawing of electrospun polymer nanofibers. Post-drawing is critical in conventional microfiber processing to enhance mechanical strength, but has been difficult to implement with nanofibers. Here, a parallel automated track collector was designed to permit continuous processing of thousands of individual nanofibers per minute under highly controllable drawing conditions. Post-drawing systematically induced macromolecular alignment and altered the chemical bond composition of polycaprolactone nanofibers with increasing draw ratio. The strength and stiffness of fibers with a draw ratio of 4 were enhanced by 7 and 15 times respectively and their mechanical properties exceeded previously reported values for conventional and nanoscale polycaprolactone structures. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free