Research Note pubs.acs.org/IECR
Twisted Polymer Microfiber/Nanofiber Yarns Prepared via Direct Fabrication Guoqing Chang,†,§ Aike Li,‡,§ Xiaoqian Xu,† Xiaoliang Wang,*,† and Gi Xue*,† †
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China Hebei Shengxue Dacheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shijiazhuang 051430, China
‡
ABSTRACT: Twisted polymer microfiber/nanofiber yarns were manufactured by using a direct twisted electrospinning method. Compared with typical electrospinning setup, a significant difference in this method was that a high-speed motor was used to induce the spinneret tip with relatively short collecting distance at the electrospinning process. Two types of polymer selfbundling yarns were prepared successfully: poly(vinylpyrrolidone) and poly(ether sulfones). The collecting distance was a very important factor to achieve twisted polymer microfiber/nanofiber yarns from ejected fiber bundles by this self-bundling and rotating electrospinning method. In addition, the possible mechanism for the self-bundling formation of twisted microfiber/nanofiber yarn was proposed.
1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the nanostructured materials have drawn considerable attention, because they can provide special properties and better applications, in comparison with those conventional macroscopic materials. Among the most significant results in nanotechnology are one-dimensional nanostructured metal oxides. The structures of the materials as active components or electronic interconnects have a pronounced impact on emerging nanoscale devices.1,2 In addition, the development of low-dimensional nanostructured materials with improved functionalities, which could be achieved by increasing the surface area and quantum confinement effects, is quite desirable. Moreover, this is favorable for us to investigate the relationship between the dimensionality and the physicochemical properties. It is well-known that, with the decrease in fiber diameter, it is beneficial to improve the mechanical properties of the fiber. However, it was found that relatively robust fibers
