Electrospinning of pullulan nanofibers for food package materials

摘要

Electrospinning is a process that fabricates continuous fibers with diameters in the nano to micron range. Pullulan with different concentrations were successfully electrospun into nanofibers with water as solvent in this study. We have evaluated the effects of solution concentration on the morphology of the fibers. The morphologies of the nanofibrous mats were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). With increasing the solution concentration, the electrospun nanofibers changed from beaded nanofibers to smooth nanofibers, meanwhile, the average diameters of electrospun pullulan nanofibers increased from 44 nm, 89 nm, 136 nm, 172 nm to 219 nm when the solution concentration changed from 12, 15, 20, 25 to 30 wt%. The distribution of electrospun fibers is normal distribution. The electrospun nanofibrous mats will be a promising food package material.