Comparison of the mechanical characteristics of produced nanofibers by electrospinning process based on different collectors

Abstract

Polymer nanofiber in nanofibrous membrane produced by electrospinning process can be employed in various fields such as medical engineering, environmental engineering, biotechnology, energy, tissue scaffolds, and protective clothing. In these applications, the mechanical properties of the nanofibrous membrane should be studied to get long-life durability. In the current study, nanofibers are obtained from electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) solution in Dimethylformamide (DFM) solvent. Nanofibers are produced with disc, cylinder, wire drum, parallel bars and polygon collectors and their mechanical properties are examined and compared. For this study, a tensile testing machine with special jaws was applied. According to the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images, the average diameter of the produced nanofibers ranges from 300 to 340 nm. In addition, nanofiber layers have a thickness of 0.03 mm. They were cut in the 10 × 25 mm2 size; then, the tensile test was performed. Results show that produced nanofiber layers by rotating cylinder collector have the highest ultimate strength while the disk collector results in the highest Young's modulus in produced samples.