Enabling the electrospinnability of PS/PVC/Bi2O3 nanocomposite fibers via wet electrospinning

Abstract

It has been well-known that process, solution and environmental parameters have significant effects on characteristics of electrospun mats. Electrospinning is a promising technique for manufacturing of functional, lightweight and novel surfaces due to producibility of fibrous mats from polymer solutions loaded with various additives. In this study, Bi2O3 was incorporated into binary polymer solutions prepared with polymers having high and moderate shielding efficiency (PS and PVC, respectively) and their appropriate solvents. The characterization of electrospun mats showed that electrospinnability of prepared solution was possible with wet electrospinning at identical process, solution and environmental conditions. It was noticed that the average fiber diameter was 979.18 nm, thicker nanofibrous mats were fabricated and a few bead formation was observed in wet electrospun mats. But bead-dominant structure was obtained in dry electrospun mats despite of finer average fiber diameter (271.22 nm). Similar crystalline structure and no distinct bond occurence was observed in wet and dry electrospun nanocomposite mats. The average mat thickness of wet electrospun mats was approximately 65 times higher than dry electrospun mat. In wet electrospinning, use of liquid in collector promoted surface unevenness, decreased beading formation, facilitated fiber-to-fiber interaction and influenced pore distribution positively due to high surface tension of distilled water.