Highly Oriented Crystalline PE Nanofibrils Produced by Electric-Field-Induced Stretching of Electrospun Wet Fibers

• Published in: Macromolecular materials and engineering Vol. 295; no. 12; pp. 1082 - 1089
• Main Authors: Yoshioka, Taiyo, Dersch, Roland, Greiner, Andreas, Tsuji, Masaki, Schaper, Andreas K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 10-12-2010; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley
• Subjects: Accumulators; Applied sciences; Collectors; Electrospinning; Exact sciences and technology; Fibers and threads; Forms of application and semi-finished materials; molecular orientation; Morphology; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; parallel-electrode collector; polyethylene (PE); Polyethylenes; Polymer industry, paints, wood; Technology of polymers; TEM; Polyethylene; Crystal orientation; parallel-electrode collector; polyethylene (PE); Electrospinning; Experimental study; molecular orientation; Oriented polymer; Morphology; Manufacturing; Formation mechanism; Nanostructured materials; TEM
• ISSN: 1438-7492; 1439-2054; 1439-2054
• DOI: 10.1002/mame.201000207

In order to enhance the molecular orientation of electrospun nanofibers, a novel collection technique is proposed and applied to the spinning of polyethylene from high temperature solution. The technique makes use of a parallel‐electrode collector that acts before solidification of the fiber occurs. The resulting multiple‐necking morphology is composed of fine nanofibrils with very small diameter and narrow size distribution. The crystalline orientation of the nanofibrils was analyzed by TED. The formation mechanism of the nanofibrils is discussed. The strong elongational effect of the electric‐field‐induced stretching force in the parallel‐electrode collector is demonstrated by the orientational analysis and by observation of the multiple‐necking morphology.
Highly oriented crystalline PE nanofibrils with very small diameters and narrow size distribution were fabricated by a special electrospinning method based on a combination of parallel‐electrode collector system and evaporation‐controlled spinning. The strong stretching effect of the split electric field is directly demonstrated by the orientational analysis of electron diffraction patterns and by visualizing the multiple‐necking morphology.