Comparison of Electrospinning and Gas Jet Fiber Processes for Fabrication of Bi-Component Polymer Nanofibers from Single Solutions

摘要

In this study, the rates of nanofiber production are compared between single needle electrospinning and single nozzle gas jet fiber (GJF) processes by considering bi-component nanofibers of two immiscible polymers. The spinning solutions consist of two immiscible polymers and two mutually miscible solvents. The solvent pairs with different vapor pressure are used to obtain three morphological forms - interpenetrating network (IPN), bi-lobal, and core-shell. As baseline for comparison, electrospinning conditions are chosen to produce the same equivalent liquid jet diameter as in the case of GJF process. It is observed that nanofibers of IPN, bi-lobal, and core-shell morphologies are easily produced in the GJF process at high rates while nanofibers of only the IPN and bi-lobal morphologies are produced via electrospinning, although at much lower rates. The core-shell nanofibers cannot be produced via electrospinning process for the combinations of polymers and the solvents chosen in this work.