Surface morphology of electrospun PLA fibers : mechanisms of pore formation
Author
Natarajan, Lakshmi
New, Jackie
Dasari, Aravind
Yu, Suzhu
Manan, Munirah Abdul
Date of Issue
2014School
School of Materials Science and Engineering
Research Centre
Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology
Version
Accepted version
Abstract
The article elucidates the mechanisms of formation of varying degrees of surface pores/pits on polylactic acid (PLA) fibers during electrospinning. The role of a combination of different parameters in governing pore formation was demonstrated. They include solvent vapor pressure (pv), solvent miscibility/interaction with water, solubility parameter, and relative humidity (RH) within the spinning unit. Our results indicated that traditional mechanisms like thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and vapor induced phase separation (VIPS) were not responsible in the generation of surface porosity/pits. Instead, higher RH (water vapor, a non-solvent of the polymer), and its miscibility/interaction with solvent(s) were concluded to be relatively more important than the simple presence of a high pv solvent or a combination of high pv and low pv solvent system. Further, content of high pv solvent in solution determined the spherical or elliptical nature of pores/pits by affecting the level of saturation of nearby region of the interface between jet and air during the electrospinning process.
Subject
DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Mechanical strength of materials
Type
Journal Article
Series/Journal Title
RSC advances
Rights
© 2014 The Authors. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in RSC Advances, published by Royal Society of Chemistry on behalf of The Authors. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at: [Article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C4RA06215A].
Collections
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C4RA06215A
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