Shellac nanofibers prepared using a modified coaxial electrospinning with a Triton X-100 solution as the sheath fluid

摘要

The present study reports that a modified coaxial electrospinning process, which was successfully carried out to control the diameters of shellac fibers. With a Triton-X100 in ethanol as sheath working solution and shellac ethanol solution as a core electrospinnable fluid, the coaxial electrospinning processes can be conducted continuously and smoothly. Optical observations of the electrospinning process demonstrated that both a single-fluid and a coaxial process can be realized using the same apparatus. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy results demonstrated that the flow rate of sheath Triton X-100 solutions had a significant influence on the size of shellac fibers. As the sheath-to-core fluid flow rate ratio increased from 0 to 0.4, the shellac fibers' diameter decreased from 1.21 ± 0.41 μm to 0.19 ± 0.07 μm. The fibers' diameter (D, μm) has a clear linear relationship with the flow rate of sheath Triton X-100 solution (F): D = 1.08 - 2.25 F (R~2=0.9851).