Effect of poly(ethylene oxide) on the electrospinning behavior and characteristics of ethyl cellulose composite fibers

Abstract

Ethylcellulose (EC) is a nontoxic polymer widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical applications. Previous studies showed that the electrospinning of EC is challenging due to the formation of beads rather than continuous fibers. To overcome this limitation, this study evaluated poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as a process aid to enhance the electrospinning of EC solutions. Fibers were electrospun using free surface electrospinning technique which is more conducive for scale up production than the typical spinneret approach. The effects of PEO content, PEO molecular weight, and aqueous ethanol concentration on EC solutions parameters, spinnability, and fiber morphology were studied. Among the spin dope solutions, neat EC solution had the highest conductivity (38.28 ± 0.47 µS/cm) , but lowest surface tension (42.3 ± 0.1 mN/m) and viscosity (0.331 ± 0.006 Pa.s) values. These properties led to the formation of irregular particulates interweaved with ultrafine fibers of an average diameter of 0.075 ± 0.003 µm. The incorporation of 1% (w/w) PEO (Mw = 100 kDa) in EC solution enhanced its spinnability, where stable polymer jets were observed during the electrospinning process, producing fibers of significantly (p < 0.05) larger average diameter (0.297 ± 0.007 µm). Interactions between EC and PEO in the electrospun were elucidated using Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. This study contributed to the understanding of the effect of PEO on the electrospinnability of EC solutions, which can be useful during the development of EC-PEO nonwovens for specific end use applications.