Self-assembly-driven electrospinning: the transition from fibers to intact beaded morphologies

Linge Wang; Paul D. Topham; Oleksandr O. Mykhaylyk; Hao Yu; Anthony J. Ryan; J. Patrick A. Fairclough; Wim Bras

doi:10.1002/marc.201500149

Self-assembly-driven electrospinning: the transition from fibers to intact beaded morphologies

Linge Wang^*, Paul D. Topham, Oleksandr O. Mykhaylyk, Hao Yu, Anthony J. Ryan, J. Patrick A. Fairclough, Wim Bras

^*Corresponding author for this work

Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Polymer beads have attracted considerable interest for use in catalysis, drug delivery, and photonics due to their particular shape and surface morphology. Electrospinning, typically used for producing nanofibers, can also be used to fabricate polymer beads if the solution has a sufficiently low concentration. In this work, a novel approach for producing more uniform, intact beads is presented by electrospinning self-assembled block copolymer (BCP) solutions. This approach allows a relatively high polymer concentration to be used, yet with a low degree of entanglement between polymer chains due to microphase separation of the BCP in a selective solvent system. Herein, to demonstrate the technology, a well-studied polystyrene-poly(ethylene butylene)–polystyrene triblock copolymer is dissolved in a co-solvent system. The effect of solvent composition on the characteristics of the fibers and beads is intensively studied, and the mechanism of this fiber-to-bead is found to be dependent on microphase separation of the BCP.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1437-1443
Journal	Macromolecular rapid communications
Volume	36
Issue number	15
Early online date	2 Jun 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.201500149
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2015

Bibliographical note

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wang, L., Topham, P. D., Mykhaylyk, O. O., Yu, H., Ryan, A. J., Fairclough, J. P. A., & Bras, W. (2015). Self-assembly-driven electrospinning: the transition from fibers to intact beaded morphologies. Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Early view, which has been published in final form at 10.1002/marc.201500149. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

Funding: Royal Academy of Engineering for funding a Research Exchange project; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2013ZZ0004); and South China University of Technology (No. K412001III).

Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library or from the author.

Keywords

beads
block copolymers
electrospinning
microphase separation
self-assembly

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10.1002/marc.201500149

Self-assembly-driven electrospinning
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wang, L., Topham, P. D., Mykhaylyk, O. O., Yu, H., Ryan, A. J., Fairclough, J. P. A., & Bras, W. (2015). Self-assembly-driven electrospinning: the transition from fibers to intact beaded morphologies. Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Early view, which has been published in final form at 10.1002/marc.201500149. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
Accepted author manuscript, 804 KB

Cite this

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title = "Self-assembly-driven electrospinning: the transition from fibers to intact beaded morphologies",

abstract = "Polymer beads have attracted considerable interest for use in catalysis, drug delivery, and photonics due to their particular shape and surface morphology. Electrospinning, typically used for producing nanofibers, can also be used to fabricate polymer beads if the solution has a sufficiently low concentration. In this work, a novel approach for producing more uniform, intact beads is presented by electrospinning self-assembled block copolymer (BCP) solutions. This approach allows a relatively high polymer concentration to be used, yet with a low degree of entanglement between polymer chains due to microphase separation of the BCP in a selective solvent system. Herein, to demonstrate the technology, a well-studied polystyrene-poly(ethylene butylene)–polystyrene triblock copolymer is dissolved in a co-solvent system. The effect of solvent composition on the characteristics of the fibers and beads is intensively studied, and the mechanism of this fiber-to-bead is found to be dependent on microphase separation of the BCP. ",

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note = "This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wang, L., Topham, P. D., Mykhaylyk, O. O., Yu, H., Ryan, A. J., Fairclough, J. P. A., & Bras, W. (2015). Self-assembly-driven electrospinning: the transition from fibers to intact beaded morphologies. Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Early view, which has been published in final form at 10.1002/marc.201500149. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Funding: Royal Academy of Engineering for funding a Research Exchange project; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2013ZZ0004); and South China University of Technology (No. K412001III). Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library or from the author. ",

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AU - Ryan, Anthony J.

AU - Fairclough, J. Patrick A.

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N2 - Polymer beads have attracted considerable interest for use in catalysis, drug delivery, and photonics due to their particular shape and surface morphology. Electrospinning, typically used for producing nanofibers, can also be used to fabricate polymer beads if the solution has a sufficiently low concentration. In this work, a novel approach for producing more uniform, intact beads is presented by electrospinning self-assembled block copolymer (BCP) solutions. This approach allows a relatively high polymer concentration to be used, yet with a low degree of entanglement between polymer chains due to microphase separation of the BCP in a selective solvent system. Herein, to demonstrate the technology, a well-studied polystyrene-poly(ethylene butylene)–polystyrene triblock copolymer is dissolved in a co-solvent system. The effect of solvent composition on the characteristics of the fibers and beads is intensively studied, and the mechanism of this fiber-to-bead is found to be dependent on microphase separation of the BCP.

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Self-assembly-driven electrospinning: the transition from fibers to intact beaded morphologies

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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