Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Bombyx mori Nanofiber Composites by the Electrospinning Process
- PDF / 2,691,432 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 22 Downloads / 261 Views
Y1.4.1
Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Bombyx mori Nanofiber Composites by the Electrospinning Process Jonathan Ayutsede1, Milind Gandhi2, Sachiko Sukigara3 and Frank Ko1* 1-Fibrous Materials Laboratory, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 2-School of Biomedical Engineering, Sciences and Health Systems, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104 3- Faculty of Education and Human Sciences, Niigata University, Japan *To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (215) 895-1640, Fax: (215) 895-6684
ABSTRACT A nanocomposite of silkworm silk and single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) was produced by the electrospinning process. Regenerated silk fibroin dissolved in a dispersion of carbon nanotubes in formic acid was electrospun and the morphological, chemical and mechanical properties of the electrospun nanofibers were examined. The mechanical properties of the SWNT reinforced fiber show increases in Young’s modulus up to 460 % in comparison with the un-reinforced aligned fiber. INTRODUCTION Protein-based polymers with good biocompatibility and structural properties such as silk have been used as suture and textile materials [1]. The triangular shaped cross section and 10-20 µm diameters of Bombyx mori fibers remain unchanged over the years. The fibers consist of thousands of parallel fibrils which give them their grainy surfaces. This paper examines the scientific implications of reducing the fiber diameter to the nanoscale, changing the triangular cross section of the fiber and reinforcing the fibers with SWNT by the electrospinning process. We envision new tailorable properties for the nanofibers such as reduction in static electricity, higher tensile modulus and strength. Electrospinning is an attractive method of producing nanoscale fibers from natural [2] and synthetic sources [3] with diameters ranging from 2 nm to several micrometers. Fiber diameters as low as 7 nm with circular cross section, smooth surfaces and improved biocompatibility can be produced by electrospinning regenerated silk fibroin devoid of sericin [4]. However, the mechanical properties of the electrospun fiber were lacking in comparison with the natural fiber due to the differences in their processing steps. The availability of SWNT which have exceptional electrical and mechanical properties (elastic modulus and tensile strength of 1TPa and 200 GPa respectively [5]) make them suitable candidates for potential applications as polymer reinforcements for composites, materials for energy storage [6], electronics [7], catalysis [8] and vaccine delivery [9] . In
Y1.4.2
recent years, SWNT’s have been utilized as nanofillers to enhance the mechanical properties of polymeric materials [10]. Utilizing SWNT’s will provide design options of tailoring the mechanical properties of polymers for various applications. An enormous reinforcement effect with the use of only a small portion of SWNT can be anticipated. However, the challenges involved in the fabric
Data Loading...
