Synergistic effect of electric field and polymer structures acting on fabricating beads-free robust superhydrophobic electrospun fibers

• Published in: Polymer (Guilford) Vol. 213; p. 123208
• Main Authors: Guo, Yudi, Zhao, Erqing, Zhao, Xijuan, Zhang, Chenyang, Yao, Lu, Guo, Xiaowei, Wang, Xiaoping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 20-01-2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Beads; Block copolymers; Distillation; Distilled water; Electric fields; Electrospinning; Fabrication; Fibers; Fluorine; Hydrophobic surfaces; Hydrophobicity; Polymers; Polymethyl methacrylate; Polymethylmethacrylate; Polystyrene; Polystyrene resins; Robust control; Robust superhydrophobicity; Surface enrichment; Synergistic effect; Textiles; Surface enrichment; Robust superhydrophobicity; Synergistic effect
• ISSN: 0032-3861; 1873-2291
• DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2020.123208

The synergistic effects of electric field and polymer structures were innovatively introduced to achieve uniform, beads-free, and robust superhydrophobic electrospun fibers. Aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) terminated block copolymers of APTES-poly (methyl methacrylate)-b-poly (dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) (APTES-PMMA-b-PDFMA) and APTES-polystyrene-b-PDFMA (APTES-PS-b-PDFMA) were synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and electrospinning in a positive electric field. Uniform, beads-free, and robust superhydrophobic electrospun films were fabricated with APTES-PS-b-PDFMA involving small amount of PDFMA segment. XPS results display that effective surface fluorine enrichment is more easily achieved on APTES-PS-b-PDFMA than on APTES-PMMA-b-PDFMA which involves large amount of DFMA. The mechanism can be summarized as follows: negatively charged block PS in positive electric field migrates towards the core of electrospinning jets, and block PMMA has a better positive charging stability than block DFMA, resulting in preferential surface segregation. This investigation will provide an important instructive value in controllable fabrication of robust superhydrophobic electrospun films applied in the fields of textiles, oil-water separation, membrane distillation, etc.
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•Uniform, beads/particles-free, and robust superhydrophobic APTES-PS-b-PDFMA electrospun fibers have been fabricated.•Electric field promotes selective surface segregation of like-polarity functional groups.•Functional groups having more stable charging ability preferentially migrate to fiber surface.•Polymers containing functional groups of opposite polarity help to achieve efficient surface segregation of block PDFMA.•Block structure helps to achieve surface uniform distributions of fluorinated groups.