Optimization of Solvent System and Polymer Concentration for Synthesis of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Fiber using Rotary Forcespinning Technique

摘要

Rotary forcespinning is one of the techniques used for fabrication of polymer fiber. In this paper optimization of several parameters for synthesis of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers using rotary forcespinning technique is described. In order to obtain PVA fibers with smallest diameter the optimization parameters of solvent system and polymer concentration were performed. The results show that PVA that was dissolved in water as a single solvent produced fibers with high wettability. A mixture of water and ethanol as a solvent system was developed with variation in ethanol content. The effects of ethanol content on fiber diameter were investigated. Rotary forcespinning using solvent with ethanol content below 30% resulted in PVA fibers with high wettability, while solvent ethanol content of more than 70% was unable to dissolve PVA completely. The effect of PVA concentration on the fiber morphology was investigated by adjusting PVA concentration in the range of 9 to 13 wt.%. The diameter of the PVA fibers was uniform and could be controlled by adjusting the PVA concentration.