Novel Optimised Highly Aligned Electrospun PEI-PAN Nanofibre Mats with Excellent Wettability

This study comprehensively optimised the parameters for electrospinning a polyetherimide (PEI) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) blend to obtain highly aligned (∼93%) nanofibres (NFs) mats with an average diameter of ∼150 nm. The formation of smooth, constant, and bead-free NFs was observed as the concentration of the PAN solution hosted in the PEI solution increased beyond 50%. To reduce the NFs diameters, the following optimised parameters were used: 20% humidity (ranges from 20%-60%), 19 kV applied voltage (ranges from 13-24 kV), 0.6 mL/h flow rate (ranges from 0.3-1.5 mL/h), 150 mm of needle-tip-to-collector distance (ranges from 100-300 mm), 2500 rpm of collector speed (ranges from 0-2500 rpm), and the other parameters were maintained constant. The fabricated PEI-PAN NFs were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and contact angle (CA) measurement to analyse the morphology of the fibres, study their thermal properties, and to confirm the PEI-PAN blending and wettability, respectively. The detailed morphological studies from the FE-SEM images showed the influence of the parameters on the fibres diameter and alignment. The TGA and FTIR results showed an enhancement in the thermal properties of samples S2 (e.g. 75% PEI-25% PAN), S3 (e.g. 50% PEI-50% PAN), and S4 (e.g. 25% PEI-75% PAN) as compared to S5 (e.g. 0% PEI-100% PAN) and good blending between PEI and PAN....
Source: Polymer - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research