Online UV Curing of Electrospun Polysulfone Fibers Containing an Acrylate as Cross‐Linker

Abstract

In this work, a sustainable, in situ UV‐induced reactive electrospinning technique is demonstrated to produce solvent stable electrospun membranes in a single operation. This approach is based on the addition of an acrylated cross‐linker into the polysulfone‐based dope solution and on the online irradiation of the solution while it is electrospun, thus allowing reaction during formation of the fibers. The electrospinning parameters and UV curing conditions are thoroughly optimized. Mats are also prepared via an offline approach in which UV curing is performed on the previously electrospun mats and compared with the membranes fabricated via the online curing method. As opposed to pristine polysulfone fibers, the electrospun mats containing acrylate are stable in a variety of solvents, such as tetrahydrofurane (THF), acetone, ethyl acetate, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), and toluene. The online irradiated mats of desired thickness are produced in a single step operation and the sustainability of the process is achieved through the optimization of electrospinning and solution parameters. image