• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.138-143
• /
• 2016

In the present study, silk fibroin (SF) was dissolved in $CaCl_2/H_2O/EtOH$ solution at $85^{\circ}C$. After the dissolution, the SF solution was cooled down and stored at $4^{\circ}C$ for 28 d. The stability of the solution's viscosity and electrospinnability was observed to examine the stability of SF molecules during storage in $CaCl_2/H_2O/EtOH$ solution. The viscosities of $SF/CaCl_2/H_2O/EtOH$ solution and SF formic acid solution did not change during 28 days' storage of SF in $CaCl_2/H_2O/EtOH$ solution. The electrospinnability of the SF solution, mean diameter of the electrospun SF fiber, and crystallinity index of electrospun SF web did not change, regardless of the length of the storage period. These results imply that SF molecules do not degrade during 28 days' storage in $CaCl_2/H_2O/EtOH$ solution.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.99-105
• /
• 2010

In this paper, the regenerated silk fibroins were dissolved in LiBr aqueous solution with different dissolution temperature and time, and the effects of the dissolution condition on the regeneration yield, molecular weight, wet spinnability, and electrospinnability of regenerated silk fibroin were investigated. The regeneration yield, molecular weight distribution, and wet spinnability of regenerated silk fibroin were nearly affected by the dissolution temperature and time. However, the electrospinning performance of silk fibroin was influenced by the dissolution condition implying the electrospinning of silk fibroin is more sensitive process than the wet spinning in the range tested in this study. While $25^{\circ}C$ of dissolution temperature resulted in a good electrospinnability of regenerated silk fibroin, the electrospinnability was slightly deteriorated when silk fibroin was dissolved at $60^{\circ}C$ for 6 hours. Also, though the fiber diameters of electrospun silk fibroin produced by the dissolution at $25^{\circ}C$ for 6 hours and 24 hours were 443 and 451 nm, respectively, that at $60^{\circ}C$ for 5 min was reduced to 411 nm. The fiber diameter was more decreased to 393 nm when the dissolution time increased up to 6 hours at $60^{\circ}C$.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.30 no.9
• /
• pp.1967-1972
• /
• 2009

The electrospinnability of pitch was improved by blending in a solution of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) resulting in the reduction of the average fiber diameter from 2000 to 750 nm. Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) derived by stabilization, carbonization and steam activation at 700, 800, and 900 ${^{\circ}C}$ of the PAN/pitch electrospun fibers for 60 min were investigated as electrodes for supercapacitors. The Brunauer, Emmett, Teller (BET) specific surface area ranged from 732 to 1877 $m^2g^{-1}$ and the specific capacitance from 75.5 to 143.5 $Fg^{-1}$, depending on the activation conditions. Electrodes from the electrospun web activated at 900 ${^{\circ}C}$ exhibited a particularly quick response showing a high frequency of 5.5 Hz at a phase angle of ‒$45^o$ of the impedance spectroscopy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.372-385
• /
• 2014

Lignin is an abundant natural polymer in the biosphere and second only to cellulose; however, it is under-utilized and considered a waste. In this study, lignin was fabricated into nanofibers via electrospinning. The critical parameters that affected the electrospinnability and morphology of the resulting fibers were examined with the aim to utilize lignin as a resource for a new textile material. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was added as a carrier polymer to facilitate the fiber formation of lignin, and the electrospun fibers were deposited on polyester (PET) nonwoven substrate. Eleven lignin/PVA hybrid solutions with a different lignin to PVA mass ratio were prepared and then electrospun to find an optimum concentration. Lignin nano-fibers were electrospun under a variety of conditions such as various feed rates, needle gauges, electric voltage, and tip-to-collector distances in order to find an optimum spinning condition. We found that the optimum concentration for electrospinning was a 5wt% PVA precursor solution upon the addition of lignin with the mass ratio of PVA:lignin=1:5.6. The viscosity of the lignin/PVA hybrid solution was determined as an important parameter that affected the electrospinning process; in addition, the interrelation between the viscosity of hybrid solution and the electrospinnability was examined. The solution viscosity increased with lignin loading, but exhibited a shear thinning behavior beyond a certain concentration that resulted in needle clogging. A steep increase in viscosity was also noted when the electrospun system started to form fibers. Consequently, the viscosity range to produce bead-free lignin nanofibers was revealed. The energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed that lignin remained after being transformed into nanofibers. The results indicate the possibility of developing a new fiber material that utilizes biomass with resulting fibers that can be applied to various applications such as filtration to wound dressing.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.334-339
• /
• 2008

Recently electro spinning is a widely used simple technique to prepared micro- to nanometer-sized fiber of various polymers. In general, a normal multiple-nozzle electro spinning system has been difficult to achieve high production-rate fabricating micro/nanofibers due to the interference of electric field between individual nozzles in the process. To reduce the interference effect of electric field between nozzles, we developed a multi-nozzle electrospinning system supplemented with auxiliary electrodes. Poly($\varepsilon$-carprolactone)(PCL), which has good mechanical property and biocompatibility, was electrospun by the multi-nozzle electro spinning system. Electrospinnability, product rate, and size uniformity of spun fibers for the system with and without auxiliary electrodes were characterized. As a result, the multi-nozzle electrospinning system supplemented with auxiliary electrodes provides excellently stable processability and showed high mass productivity of PCL-nanofibers relative to a normal multi-nozzle electro spinning system.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.458-464
• /
• 2008

A successful scaffold should have a highly porous structure and good mechanical stability. High porosity and appropriate pore size provide structural matrix for initial cell attachment and proliferation enabling the exchange of nutrients between the scaffold and environment. In this paper the highly porous scaffold of poly(${\varepsilon}$-caprolactone) electrospun nanofibers could be manufactured with an auxiliary electrode and chemical blowing agent (BA) under several processing conditions, such as the concentration of PCL solution, weight percent of a chemical blowing agent, and decomposition time of a chemical blowing agent. To attain stable electrospinnability and blown nanofiber mats having high microporosity and large pore, a processing condition, 8wt% of PCL solution and 0.5wt% of a chemical blowing agent under $100^{\circ}C$ and decomposition time of $2{\sim}3\;s$, was used. The growth characteristic of human dermal fibroblasts cells cultured in the mats showed the good adhesion and proliferation on the blown mat compared to a normal electrospun mat.