Optimization of the Electrospun Niobium-Tungsten Oxide Nanofibers Diameter Using Response Surface Methodology.

Babajide Oluwagbenga Fatile,Mamoun Medraj,Martin Pugh

doi:10.3390/nano11071644

Babajide Oluwagbenga Fatile, Mamoun Medraj + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11071644

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Journal: Nanomaterials	Publication Date: Jun 23, 2021
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Concordia University

Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate the effect of working parameters on the electrospinning of niobium–tungsten oxide nanofibers and optimize the process using central composite design (CCD) based on the response surface methodology (RSM). An experiment was designed to assess the effects of five variables including the applied voltage (V), spinning distance (D), polymer concentration (P), flow rate (F), and addition of NaCl (N) on the resulting diameter of the nanofibers. Meanwhile, a second-order prediction model of nanofibers diameter was fitted and verified using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results show that the diameter of the nanofibers was significantly influenced by all the variables except the flow rate. Some second-order and cross factor interactions such as VD, DP, PF, PN, and P2 also have significant effects on the diameter of the nanofibers. The results of the ANOVA yielded R2 and adjusted R2 values of 0.96 and 0.93 respectively, this affirmed that the predictive model fitted well with the experimental data. Furthermore, the process parameters were optimized using the CCD method and a maximum desirability function of 226 nm was achieved for the diameter of the nanofibers. This is very close to the 233 nm diameter obtained from a confirmatory experiment using the optimum conditions. Therefore, the model is representative of the process, and it could be used for future studies for the reduction of the diameter of electrospun nanofibers.

Highlights

Over the last few years, researchers have been focusing on the fabrication of ceramic nanofibers with large surface-to-volume ratios, as these materials have potential applications where high porosity is desirable [1]
Various techniques for fabricating nanofibers had been reported in the literature and some of the most widely used techniques include flash spinning, self-assembly, phase separation, drawing-processing, electrospinning, template-assisted synthesis, melt blowing, electrochemical deposition and solvent casting [3,4,5,6]
The result of the multiple regression analysis (Table 4) yielded Equation (1) which represents a mathematical relationship between the response and the factors in a coded unit: d f = 2887 − 112.1 V − 49.3 D − 127 P − 252 F + 463 N + 13.42 P2 − 16.1 F2

Summary

Introduction

Over the last few years, researchers have been focusing on the fabrication of ceramic nanofibers with large surface-to-volume ratios, as these materials have potential applications where high porosity is desirable [1]. The electrospinning technique is beneficial for fabricating nanostructures from varieties of raw materials This method combines the use of electrospray and spinning processes to achieve a highly efficient technique suitable for spinning different types of fibers from polymer solutions or melts [2]. These unique advantages of electrospinning have attracted researchers from different fields for synthesizing different nanostructures for various applications, such as optical electronics, healthcare, filtration, Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 1644.

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