| Abstrakt: |
Electrospinning is the only known technique for fabrication of long nonwoven ultrafinefibers. However, a number of limitations, including low productivity and clogging of a spinneret, substantially paralyses industrial scale up of the process. Clogging is indeed an unavoidable phenomenon during electrospinning of biopolymers and the exact reason for clogging is still unclear. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate the clogging phenomenon via the study of a solution of zeinethanol, which was used as a model biopolymer system. The gellike substance causing clogging at the spinneret was collected and its infrared spectrum and rheological properties were determined via Fourier transform infrared FTIR spectrophotometry and rheometry, respectively. The results indicated that clogging was due to solvent evaporation, which led to formation of a highly viscous semisolid at the spinneret. Moreover, the results also revealed that the applied voltage and polymer concentration were the key parameters affecting clogging. A means to help avoid clogging and hence an ability to continuously perform electrospinning was also proposed and tested. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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