Nuclear Engineering Commons^™

Electrokinetic Separation Of Co-Solutes Into Bimodal Fibers By Electrospinning, Chunya Wu, Shinobu Nagata, Gary C. Tepper, James T. Mcleskey Jr.

Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Publications

Composite and chemically/physically distinct fibers of sodium poly[2-(3-thienyl)-ethoxy-4-butylsulfonate] (PTEBS) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) were formed by electrospinning from a homogeneous aqueous solution containing PTEBS and PEO co-solutes. Composite nanofibers of diameter of ∼60nm were electrospun from an aqueous solution. The addition of ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) to the water solution resulted in “bimodal” electrospun fibers consisting of distinct large diameter white PEO fiber segments and small diameter black PTEBS fiber segments. The optical absorptionspectrum of the composite PTEBS/PEO nanofibers did not exhibit the characteristic peak around 460nm, which is present in the bulk spectrum.