Simultaneous Electrospinning of Two Polymer Solutions in a Side-by-side Approach to Produce Bicomponent Fibers

5.1 Chapter Summary Bicomponent fibers, in the range of 100 nm to a few microns, of miscible poly(vinylchloride)/segmented polyurethane (PVC/Estane) and immiscible poly(vinyl chloride)/poly(vinylidienefluoride) (PVC/PVDF) were produced respectively by electrospinning two polymer solutions in a side-by-side approach. For each of the pairs investigated, PVC/Estane and PVC/PVDF, energy dispersive spectroscopy was utilized to identify the respective components by detecting the signal corresponding to chlorine, oxygen and fluorine from PVC, Estane and PVDF respectively. The ratio of the peak intensities of Cl to O in PVC/Estane and Cl to F in PVC/PVDF were found to vary along the length of the fibers. The ratio of the peak intensities corresponding to Cl and O in the miscible PVC/Estane was calibrated to the actual wt% of Estane. The strength of this methodology is to effectively electrospun immiscible and miscible polymer pairs to yield submicron bicomponent fibers that are expected to exhibit a combination of properties from each of its constituent components. 5.2 Introduction As discussed in earlier chapters, electrospinning is a unique process to produce submicron polymeric fibers in the average diameter range of 100 nm-5 μm. Fibers produced by this approach have a diameter that is at least one or two orders of magnitude smaller than those produced by conventional fiber production methods like melt or solution spinning. The effects of several process parameters, such as the applied electric field strength, flow rate, concentration, distance between the capillary and the target have been explored in great detail for different polymer materials.. Primarily, most of the systems that have been investigated have utilized electrospinning from a single polymer solution or melt. Recently, a few systems where blends of polymers (in the same solvent) and blends of polymer solutions (a four component system) have been electrospun. Blends of polyaniline, a conducting polymer, with poly(ethylene oxide), PEO, in