TITLE:
The Influence of Sheath Solvent’s Flow Rate on the Quality of Electrospun Ethyl Cellulose Nanofibers
AUTHORS:
Deng-Guang Yu, Xiong-Xiu Li, Jia-Wen Ge, Peng-Peng Ye, Xia Wang
KEYWORDS:
Coaxial Electrospinning; Nanofibers; Ethyl Cellulose; Sheath Fluids; Flow rate
JOURNAL NAME:
Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Material Science,
Vol.3 No.4B,
October
28,
2013
ABSTRACT: The present research
investigates the influence of sheath solvent’s flow
rate on the quality of electrospun ethyl cellulose (EC) nanofibers using a
modified coaxial process. With 24 w/v % EC in ethanol as electrospinnable core
fluid and ethanol as sheath fluid, EC nanofibers generated under different
sheath flow rates were generated from the modified processes. FESEM
observations demonstrate that the modified process is effective in preventing
the clogging of spinneret for a smooth electrospinning. The key for the
modified coaxial process is the reasonable selection of a sheath flow rate
matching the drawing process of core EC fluid during the electrpospinning. The
EC nanofibers’ diameters (D, nm)
could be manipulated through the sheath-to-core flow rate ratio (f) as D = 819-1651f
(R= 0.9754) within a suitable range
of 0 to 0.25. The present paper provides useful data for the implementation of
the modified coaxial process controllably to obtain polymer nanofibers with
high quality.