Abstract
Polypropylene (PP) nanofibres have been electrospun from molten PP using a needleless melt-electrospinning setup containing a rotary metal disc spinneret. The influence of the disc spinneret (e.g., disc material and diameter), operating parameters (e.g., applied voltage, spinning distance), and a cationic surfactant on the fibre formation and average fibre diameter were examined. It was shown that the metal material used for making the disc spinneret had a significant effect on the fibre formation. Although the applied voltage had little effect on the fibre diameter, the spinning distance affected the fibre diameter considerably, with shorter spinning distance resulting in finer fibres. When a small amount of cationic surfactant (dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide) was added to the PP melt for melt-electrospinning, the fibre diameter was reduced considerably. The finest fibres produced from this system were400±290 nm. This novel melt-electrospinning setup may provide a continuous and efficient method to produce PP nanofibres.
Highlights
Electrospinning has been a widely used platform technology for producing polymer nanofibres [1,2,3]
Electrospun nanofibres are typically produced from polymer solutions, and organic solvents have to be used in most cases to form homogeneous polymer solutions
Two PP samples Metocene MF650X and Metocene MF650Y were used for this melt-electrospinning study. Both are commercial grades made using metallocene catalysts to achieve a narrow molecular weight distribution and a high degree of resin consistency. Both samples have very high melt flow rates (MFR) values, giving them low viscosity after melting which is a critical requirement in melt spinning to obtain very fine fibres
Summary
Electrospinning has been a widely used platform technology for producing polymer nanofibres [1,2,3] It allows good control of fibre diameter, morphology, and functionality [4,5,6]. By loading a polymer solution onto the disc edge and charging it with a high electric DC voltage, a large number of solution jets were generated spontaneously from the disc edge surface Nanofibres produced in this way were uniform with a much higher productivity than those produced by conventional needle solution electrospinning. The influence of disc spinneret, operating parameters, PP type, and a cationic surfactant on the fibre morphology were examined To our knowledge, this is the first paper on needleless melt-electrospinning
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