Formation of electrospun nylon-6/methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) oligomer spider-wave nanofibers

A methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (MPEG) oligomer with a viscous nylon-6 supporting solution was fabricated and polymerized simultaneously to form a nanofiber network structure via electrospinning. This network consisted of thin MPEG nanofibers and thick nylon-6 nanofibers, which were arranged in a spider-web like structure. These two different nanofibers were separated from the electrospun mat by extraction of MPEG using water. This result showed that the hybrid nanocomposite mat consisted of two different interconnecting polymeric nanofibers. We propose that this interconnection is due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between MPEG and nylon-6 molecules. This spider-web structure formed by electrospinning was responsible for increasing the mechanical strength and the wetability of nylon-6 mat in the presence of small amounts of MPEG.

[1]  Bin Ding,et al.  Formation of novel 2D polymer nanowebs via electrospinning , 2006 .

[2]  X. Ning,et al.  Studies on electrospun nylon-6/chitosan complex nanofiber interactions , 2009 .

[3]  Faheem A. Sheikh,et al.  Spider-net within the N6, PVA and PU electrospun nanofiber mats using salt addition: Novel strategy in the electrospinning process , 2009 .

[4]  G. Torri,et al.  Structural differences between chitin polymorphs and their precipitates from solutions—evidence from CP-MAS 13C-NMR, FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy , 1992 .

[5]  Seeram Ramakrishna,et al.  Electrospun Nanofibers: Solving Global Issues , 2006 .

[6]  Pirjo Heikkilä,et al.  Electrospinning of Polyamides With Different Chain Compositions for Filtration Application , 2008 .

[7]  Cato T. Laurencin,et al.  Electrospun poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) scaffolds for skin tissue engineering. , 2008, Biomaterials.

[8]  Q. Gu,et al.  Filtration by a novel nanofiber membrane and alumina adsorption to remove copper(II) from groundwater. , 2008, Journal of hazardous materials.

[9]  Horst A von Recum,et al.  Electrospinning: applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. , 2008, Biomaterials.

[10]  Hak Yong Kim,et al.  Synchronized polymerization and fabrication of poly(acrylic acid) and nylon hybrid mats in electrospinning. , 2009, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[11]  Shizhen Zhao,et al.  Continuous thin gold films electroless deposited on fibrous mats of polyacrylonitrile and their electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of methanol , 2008 .