Polyethylene oxide electrospinning

CS and polyethylene oxide blended nanofibres within nanofibrous scaffolds can be prepared by electrospinning at ambient conditions, which further increases the effectiveness of their antimicrobial properties. 

A. Laforgue and L. Robitaille, Fabrication of poly-3-hexylthiophene/polyethylene oxide nanofibers using electrospinning, Synth. Metals, 158, 577-584 (2008). 

M. Diaz, N.J. Pinto, J. Gao, and A. G. MacDiarmid, Electrospinning nanofibers of polyaniline and polyaniline/(polystyrene and polyethylene oxide) blends, National Conference of Undergraduate Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington (2001). 

Electrospinning processes are used to prepare nanocomposite fiber mats. In order to prepare nanocomposite fiber mats, mixtures containing the polymer solution and cellulose whiskers solution are placed in the appropriated electrospinning setup. Peresin et al. [128] have produced nanocomposite mats of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals using this electrospinning technique. Smooth nonwoven mats with homogeneous nanofibers were obtained. Park et al. [129] have also incorporated cellulose whiskers into nanofibers of polyethylene oxide (PEO) by the electrospiiming process. 

A straightforward method to prepare conductive nanofibrous membrane (NFM) is from the electrospinning of conducting polymers (Figure 13.8), such as polypyrrole, polyaniline, polyethylene oxide, and polythiophene [64, 65]. Electrically conducting polymers are known to possess numerous features, which allow them to act as excellent materials for the development of sensing devices as well as for the immobilization of biomolecules in the design of biosensors [66]. 

It is worth noting that new types of materials known as composite or hybrid nanofiber using electrospinning of CNC and different polymers such as polyethylene oxide (PEO) [108], polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) [109] and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) [45] have been fabricated. 

Intensive research effort has been focused on using nanoscale structures to significantly improve the performances (sensitivity, selectivity, response and recovery speed) of the SAW sensors. Liu et al. [39] reported that dynamic chemical vapor SAW sensors have been developed by depositing electrospun polyethylene oxide nanofibrous membranes on the surface of ST-cut quartz the response time of the sensors was 5 min (Fig. 11.2a). Lin [42] constructed a SAW humidity sensor by casting polyaniUne/poly(vinyl butyral) nanofibers on SAW resonator the as-prepared sensor could detect 0.5 % relative humidity in 1 s. Electrospun poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)/LiTa03 composite nanofibrous membranes were coated onto the surface of SAW electrode to assay H2 the results indicated that the sensors sensitivity, response time, and recovery time could be remarkably improved and reached 1 %, 120, and 200 s by regulating the electrospinning parameters [43]. 

Various polymers have been successfully electrospun from solution, sol-gel suspension, or melt into ultrafine nanotibers. For example, as listed in Table 13.2, these polymers included nylon-6 [20, 21], polyacrylonitrile (PAN) [22, 23], polyethylene terephthalate (PET) [24], polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) [25], polystyrene (PS) [26, 27], polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) [28, 29], polyethersulfone (PES) [30], polyimides (PI) [31, 32], polyethylene oxide (PEO) [33], polyurethanes (PU) [34], polycarbonates (PC) [35], polycaprolactone (PCL) [36], polybenzimidazole (PBI) [37, 38], polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) [39], polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) [40], polyvinyl chloride (PVC) [41], polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) [42], hydrox-ypropyl cellulose (HPC) [43], polyglycolic acid (PGA) [44], polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) [45], cellulose acetate (CA) [46,47] and many more. To be used as filtration membranes, nanoflbers made of water-soluble polymers have to be further cross-linked after the electrospinning process. As polymers having different physical and... 

Fig. 13 Porous nanofibers obtained via phase separation processes during electrospinning for mixtures of polylactide and polyethylene oxide [54]...

Co-electrospinning has been applied so far for the preparation of polymer core shell fibers, hollow polymer core shell fibers, hollow fibers composed not only of polymers, but also of ceramics, as well as for the immobilization of functional objects in droplets dispersed in the core that are arranged along the fiber axis. Among the examples reported in the literature are core shell fibers spun from polystyrene and polyethylene oxide, two kinds of polyethylene oxide (one with and the other without a chromophore), and core shell fibers with the electrically conductive polymer polyhexathiophene and the insulation polymer polyethylene oxide (Fig. 20). Hollow core shell fibers in which one polymer (polycaprolactone) forms the shell onto which the core material is deposited (polyethylene oxide) as inner wall is another example for the broad spectrum of fiber architectures which can be produced by coelectrospinning. The formation of the two-layer hollow fiber is based on the... 

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