Aging effect of atmospheric pressure plasma jet treated polycaprolactone polymer solutions on electrospinning properties

ABSTRACT In previous work, an atmospheric pressure plasma jet was applied to successfully improve the electrospinnability of poly‐ε‐caprolactone (PCL) which enabled the fabrication of beadless nanofibers. In this paper, we report the aging effect of the plasma treatment to evaluate the robustness of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied polymer science 2020-08, Vol.137 (30), p.n/a
Main Authors: Grande, Silvia, Van Guyse, Joachim, Nikiforov, Anton Y., Onyshchenko, Iuliia, Asadian, Mahtab, Morent, Rino, Hoogenboom, Richard, De Geyter, Nathalie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ageing
Atmospheric pressure
biomedical applications
Electrospinning
fibers
Materials science
Nanofibers
nanostructured polymers
Plasma
Plasma jets
Polycaprolactone
Polymers
Pressure effects
Surface tension
Viscosity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT In previous work, an atmospheric pressure plasma jet was applied to successfully improve the electrospinnability of poly‐ε‐caprolactone (PCL) which enabled the fabrication of beadless nanofibers. In this paper, we report the aging effect of the plasma treatment to evaluate the robustness of the developed process. For this purpose, plasma‐treated PCL polymer solutions with different exposure time were stored for 1 and 8 days and the aged solutions were analyzed in terms of conductivity, viscosity, surface tension, pH, and polymer molecular weight. During storage, the surface tension and acidity of the plasma‐treated solutions were maintained constant. However, the viscosity was found to be significantly lower after 8 days which was attributed to PCL degradation. Electrospinning of all stored PCL solutions resulted in the generation of beadless PCL nanofibers. The plasma treatment effects were thus found to be highly stable over time and capable of producing high‐quality PCL nanofibers up to 8 days. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48914. The aging effect of the atmospheric pressure plasma jet on improvement of spinnability of poly‐ε‐caprolactone (PCL) is reported. The conductivity, viscosity, surface tension, pH, and polymer molecular weight of the aged solutions were analyzed and were compared with the unaged solutions. Electrospinning of the stored PCL solutions resulted in the generation of beadless PCL nanofibers having a similar surface chemical composition as nanofibers generated from unaged solutions.
ISSN:0021-8995
1097-4628
DOI:10.1002/app.48914