Study on the morphologies and formational mechanism of Poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) ultrafine fibers by dry-jet-wet-electrospinning

Abstract

Dry-jet-wet-electrospinning (DJWE) was carried out to study the formational mechanism of poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) electrospun fibers. Morphological comparison between normal electrospinning (NE) and DJWE was investigated. The results showed that jet could solidify quickly in DJWE to avoid bead collapse or fiber coherence. Jet structures could be maintained at very low collection distance. Beanpod-like beads, which were named as primary beads, could be seen at the boundary of stability and instability section and divided into spindle-like beads with longer collection distance. Bead-free electrospun fibers from DJWE had few bonding points among each other, and fast solidification and double-diffusion led to rough and shriveled fiber surface. DJWE mats were higher hydrophobic than that from NE due to more loose structure and higher surface porosity. Higher bead ratio on the surface and rounder bead structure resulted in higher hydrophobicity. © 2012 Shuqi Zhu et al.