Preparation of Electrospun Porous Ethyl Cellulose Fiber by THF/DMAc Binary Solvent System

Morphological change of electrospun fiber with various solvent was conducted to figure out solvent effect on the surface of ethyl cellulose nanofiber. THF (bp 66 o C) and DMAc (bp 165 o C) binary solvent sys- tem was introduced and electrospinning was performed with different ratio of THF/DMAc including each pure solvent at 100 µL/min flow rate of 15 % (w/v) ethyl cellulose dissolved in the solvent. The applied voltage was 10, 13, 15, and 20 kV under 10 cm tip-to-collector distances. Morphology of fibers was evaluated by SEM im- age through the various magnification. Regular holes were formed on the surface of fiber from pure THF and 80 % THF in DMAc, while smooth surface was observed for the pure DMAc and 80 to 20 % DMAc ratio in THF. As the electric conductivity increased, the diameter of electrospun fiber decreased. In case of binary sol- vent, the average diameter decreased from 1100 to 500 nm as increased the ratio of DMAc from 20 to 80 %.