Polystyrene electrospinning

Another limitation that is specific to the parallel plate electrospinning technique is the collection of extremely thin nanofibers, which have been observed to break because they were unable to sustain the forces of their own weight and of the repulsive charges from other fibers [62]. An electrically resistive substrate inserted into the gap between the plates can provide support to fibers suspended between the plates without influencing fiber quality [62], and may also help to shield any conductive materials below the air gap, which may attract unwanted non-aligned nanofibers. Substrates with bulk resistivity greater than 10 Q cm, such as quartz and polystyrene, are suitable for placement between parallel electrodes, while materials with bulk resistivity of less than 10 Q cm, such as glass, may result in random fiber orientations [67, 68]. 

Other studies in 2000 by Drew et al. reported that it is very difficult to spin fibers of PANI complexed to sulfonated polystyrene (PANFSPS), even when solutions containing sodium chloride and dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid sodium salt were used to lower the surface tension and thereby enhance electrospinning [16,17]. However, PANFSPS nanofibers can be produced by adding a carrier polymer such as PEO, polyacrylonitrile, or polyurethane. Also reported was the use of electrostatically layered sulfonated polystyrene as a template for the surface polymerization of conjugated polymers in their conducting form. Enzymatic synthesis of PANI and a copolymer of pyrrole and PEDOT was done on electrospun nanofiber... 

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). 

S. Nair, E. Hsiao, and S. H. Kim Fabrication of electrically-conducting nonwoven porous mats of polystyrene-polypyrrole core-shell nanofibers via electrospinning and vapor phase polymerization, J. Mater. Chem., 18, 5155-5161 (2008). 

Duan B, Dong C, Yuan X, Yao K (2004) Electrospinning of chitosan solutions in acetic add with poly(ethylene oxide). J Biomater Sci Polym Ed 15 797-811 Eda G, Shivkumar S (2(X)7) Bead-to-fiber transition in electrospun polystyrene. J Appl Polym Sd 106 475 87... 

Fashandi, H., Kariini, M. Pore fonnation in polystyrene fiber by superimposing temperature and relative humidity of electrospinning atmosphere. Polymer 53, 5832-5849 (2012)... 

Electrospinning is applicable to a wide range of polymers like those used in conventional spinning, that is, polyolefine, polyamides, polyester, aramide, and acrylic, as well as biopolymers like proteins, DNA, and polypeptides, or others like electrically conducting, photonic and other polymers such as poly(ethylene oxide] (PEO], DNA, poly(acrylic acid] (PAA], polyQactic acid] (PEA], and also collagen, organics such as nylon, polyester, and acryl resin, and poly(vinyl alcohol] (PVA], polystyrene (PS], polyacrylonitrile (PAN], peptide, cellulose, etc. 

Wutticharoenmongkol, R, P. Supaphol, T. Srikhirin, T. Kerdcharoen, and T. Osotchan. 2005. Electrospinning of polystyrene/poly(2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-l,4-phenylene vinylene)... 

Figure 1. (a) Basic apparatus for electrospinning (2). (b) A typical SEM image of electrospun polystyrene fibers with an average diameter of 43 nm (4). Scale... 

Lu, X., Zhou, J., Zhao, Y, Qiu, Y. and Li, J. 2008. Room temperature ionic liquid based polystyrene nanofibers with superhydrophobicity and conductivity produced by electrospinning. 3420-3424. 

Electrospun polystyrene (PS) (Rojas et al. 2009) and PCL (Zoppe et al. 2009) micro or nanofibers reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals were obtained by electrospinning. Nonionic surfactant sorbitan monostearate was used to improve the dispersion of the particles in the hydrophobic PS matrix while surface grafting of long chains was used in the case of PCL. 

ZnS QDs with excellent fluorescent properties have been incorporated into PPV nanofibers by direct dispersion electrospinning, obtaining a good dispersirm and limited particle aggregation [46]. Similarly, ZnSe QDs were embedded in polymer nanofibers using polystyrene (PS) and PLA as polymer matrices [47]. 

Sen R, Zhao B, Perea D, Itkis M E, Hu H, Love J, Bekyarova E and Haddon R C (2004) Preparation of single-walled carbon nanotube reinforced polystyrene and polyurethane nanofibers and membranes by electrospinning, Nano Lett 4 459-464. 

Uyar T and Besenbacher F (2008) Electrospinning of uniform polystyrene fibers The effect of solvent conductivity, Polymer 49 5336-5343. 

The effect of increasing humidity was studied during the electrospinning process of polystyrene (PS) nanofibers. It was reported that increasing humidity ended up with formation of nanofibers with superficial circular pores (Fig. 6). Moreover, extra humidity led to those pores coherence (Casper et al. 2004). 

Casper, C. L., Stephens, J. S., Tassi, N. G., et al. (2004) Controlling surface morphology of electrospun polystyrene fibers Effect of humidity and molecular weight in the electrospinning... 

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