Nano Superfine Polymer Fibrous by Electrospinning and its Thermal-Switching Function

Abstract

Intelligent or smart polymer materials are those which are either “active” or responsive to a variety of environmental stimuli, such as changes in PH, temperature, ionic strength, or electric field, or the presence of a specific chemical substrate. Thermally sensitive polymer, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(PNIPAAm) base materials, has been of great interest because aqueous solution of PNIPAAm undergo fast, reversible switching around their lower critical solution temperature(LCST) of about 29-38°C(different with their structure). PNIPAAm chains show an expanded conformation in water below the LCST because of strong hydration and change to the compact forms above the LCST by sudden dehydration. , this is the reversible switching effect of hydrophilic to hydrophobic. These switchable materials may have wide applications in functional textiles, controllable drug release, and special fibers. And Electrospinning is a simple, convenient, and versatile technique for generating fibers with diameters that range from several micrometers to tens of nanometers.Herein, we report a electropun method to prepared nano PNIPAAm fiber and its thermal response also dected. With the rusults, the diameter of PNIPAAm nanofiber within respective system around 200nm and beads-less were successfully prepared by electrospun method fabricated in all cases and the reversible switching with LCST(32 °C) feature was also behaved clearly under fiber condition.