Fibers (Jun 2016)

Effect of Polymer Concentration, Rotational Speed, and Solvent Mixture on Fiber Formation Using Forcespinning®

  • Nancy Obregon,
  • Victor Agubra,
  • Madhab Pokhrel,
  • Howard Campos,
  • David Flores,
  • David De la Garza,
  • Yuanbing Mao,
  • Javier Macossay,
  • Mataz Alcoutlabi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/fib4020020
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 2
p. 20

Abstract

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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.

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