Influence of Polymer Concentration and Nozzle Material on Centrifugal Fiber Spinning.

Jorgo Merchiers,Mieke Buntinx,Roos Peeters,Willem Meurs,Naveen K Reddy,Wim Deferme

doi:10.3390/polym12030575

Abstract

Centrifugal fiber spinning has recently emerged as a highly promising alternative technique for the production of nonwoven, ultrafine fiber mats. Due to its high production rate, it could provide a more technologically relevant fiber spinning technique than electrospinning. In this contribution, we examine the influence of polymer concentration and nozzle material on the centrifugal spinning process and the fiber morphology. We find that increasing the polymer concentration transforms the process from a beaded-fiber regime to a continuous-fiber regime. Furthermore, we find that not only fiber diameter is strongly concentration-dependent, but also the nozzle material plays a significant role, especially in the continuous-fiber regime. This was evaluated by the use of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and an aluminum nozzle. We discuss the influence of polymer concentration on fiber morphology and show that the choice of nozzle material has a significant influence on the fiber diameter.

Highlights

Microfibers and nanofibers exhibit an extremely high surface-to-volume ratio, a low density, and a high pore volume [1,2,3]
We show that a smooth morphology transition occurs as a function of polymer concentration from beads-on-string to continuous fibers, but when plotted as a function of fiber diameter the same transition is very sharp, showing two distinct slopes
We experimentally determined the influence of polymer concentration and nozzle material on the fiber diameter and morphology using a home-built centrifugal spinning setup

Summary

Introduction

Microfibers and nanofibers exhibit an extremely high surface-to-volume ratio, a low density, and a high pore volume [1,2,3] These exceptional properties offer high added value to the material, making them suitable for a wide range of applications in the fields of environment [4,5,6], biomedical technology [7,8,9], and energy production [10,11,12,13,14]. Centrifugal fiber spinning can be considered as a promising alternative to conventional spinning techniques, such as electrospinning and melt-blow spinning It is a very simple technique, based on centrifugal forces, and offers a higher production rate at a lower cost. This leads to a technology that is environmentally as well as economically advantageous over others.

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