Li Haoxuan, Zhu Chunlei, Xue Jiajia, Ke Qinfei, Xia Younan
The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
Key Laboratory of Textile Science and Technology, College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, P. R. China.
Macromol Rapid Commun. 2017 May;38(9). doi: 10.1002/marc.201600723. Epub 2017 Mar 10.
This communication describes a simple and effective method for welding electrospun nanofibers at the cross points to enhance the mechanical properties of their nonwoven mats. The welding is achieved by placing a nonwoven mat of the nanofibers in a capped vial with the vapor of a proper solvent. For polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers, the solvent is dichloromethane (DCM). The welding can be managed in a controllable fashion by simply varying the partial pressure of DCM and/or the exposure time. Relative to the pristine nanofiber mat, the mechanical strength of the welded PCL nanofiber mat can be increased by as much as 200%. Meanwhile, such a treatment does not cause any major structural changes, including morphology, fiber diameter, and pore size. This study provides a generic method for improving the mechanical properties of nonwoven nanofiber mats, holding great potential in various applications.
本通讯介绍了一种简单有效的方法，用于在交叉点处焊接电纺纳米纤维，以增强其非织造垫的机械性能。焊接是通过将纳米纤维的非织造垫放置在装有适当溶剂蒸汽的密封小瓶中来实现的。对于聚己内酯（PCL）纳米纤维，溶剂是二氯甲烷（DCM）。通过简单地改变DCM的分压和/或暴露时间，可以以可控的方式进行焊接。相对于原始纳米纤维垫，焊接后的PCL纳米纤维垫的机械强度可提高多达200%。同时，这种处理不会引起任何重大的结构变化，包括形态、纤维直径和孔径。本研究提供了一种改善非织造纳米纤维垫机械性能的通用方法，在各种应用中具有巨大潜力。
