Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-7-2016
Abstract
Polycaprolactone (PCL) fibers were produced using Forcespinning® (FS). The effects of PCL concentration, solvent mixture, and the spinneret rotational speed on fiber formation were evaluated. The concentration of the polymer in the solvents was a critical determinant of the solution viscosity. Lower PCL concentrations resulted in low solution viscosities with a correspondingly low fiber production rate with many beads. Bead-free fibers with high production rate and uniform fiber diameter distribution were obtained from the optimum PCL concentration (i.e., 12.5 wt%) with tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the solvent. The addition of N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) to the THF solvent promoted the gradual formation of beads, split fibers, and generally affected the distribution of fiber diameters. The crystallinity of PCL fibers was also affected by the processing conditions, spinning speed, and solvent mixture.
Recommended Citation
Obregon, N., Agubra, V., Pokhrel, M., Campos, H., Flores, D., De la Garza, D., Mao, Y., Macossay, J., & Alcoutlabi, M. (2016). Effect of Polymer Concentration, Rotational Speed, and Solvent Mixture on Fiber Formation Using Forcespinning®. Fibers, 4(2), 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/fib4020020
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Fibers
DOI
10.3390/fib4020020
Comments
© 2016 the authors. Published under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. Original published version available at http://doi.org/10.3390/fib4020020.