Phase Characterization and Morphology Control of Electrospun Nanofibers of Pani/Pmma Blends
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PHASE CHARACTERIZATION AND MORPHOLOGY CONTROL OF ELECTROSPUN NANOFIBERS OF PANI/PMMA BLENDS K.Desai*, C.Sung*. *Dept. Of Chemical Engineering, Center for Advanced Materials, University Of MassachusettsLowell, Lowell, MA. 01854. ABSTRACT Electrospinning derived from electro spraying is a process by which sub-micron polymer fibers can be produced using an electrostatically driven jet of polymer solution. The fibers are collected as non-woven mat and offer a high surface to volume ratio. Polyaniline is an organic conducting polymer and can be used to fabricate conducting nano fibers by blending with suitable polymers like poly methyl methacrylate. In this present work we have explored the effects of electrospinning parameters on the formation of PANI/PMMA fibers and the phase morphology of the electrospun fibers using advanced electron microscopy and scanning probe microscopy techniques. INTRODUCTION Polyaniline is an organic polymer, but is totally unmoldable and insoluble. It is a conducting polymer and exists in three oxidation states [1]. It has varied applications; its first applications were to make conducting coating of plastic materials i.e. printed circuit board production and also corrosion protection. Electrospinning is a process by which sub-micron polymer fibers can be produced using an electrostatically driven jet of polymer solution [2]. The fibers are collected as a non-woven mat or membrane with high surface area to volume ratio. Since polyaniline is insoluble in most organic solvents it cannot be spun by itself, as for electrospinning a polymer solution is required. Therefore it has to be blended with other polymers to form a polymer solution for spinning. In this study we have blended polyaniline (PANI) with poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) to form electrospun fibers. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS Polyaniline is made conducting by doping with protonating acids like campor sulphonic acid (CSA). Polyaniline of the emeraldine base form (Aldrich M.W. 65,000) was doped with CSA (Aldrich) in ratio of 0.5:0.5 wt % polymer repeating unit [3]. The PANI-CSA complex thus formed was mixed with desired amount of PMMA (Aldrich M.W. 120,000) in chloroform (Aldrich) solvent. The resulting mixture thus formed was electrospun to form fibers. As concluded from our previous studies [4] we worked with 8 wt% PANI-CSA - 12 wt% PMMA and 4 wt% PANI-CSA – 16 wt% PMMA. In electrospinning an electrode connected to a high voltage power supply is inserted into a polymeric solution contained within a pipette as shown in Figure 1. A grounded collection plate is kept at a suitable distance from tip of the pipette to collect the fibers. The formation of fibers
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depends upon the concentration of polymers in the solution, voltage applied, tip-target distance and flow rate of solution from the pipette. In this current work we are exploring the effects of processing variables on the fiber morphology using statistical design of experiments and phase morphology of the formed fibers using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) st
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