A study on the effect of the collector properties on the fabrication of magnetic polystyrene nanocomposite fibers using the electrospinning technique

Abstract

The role of the collector properties in changing the fiber morphology in electrospinning has not been completely understood yet. In this work, we studied the effect of different collectors on the helicity of the magnetic polystyrene nanocomposite fibers containing superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles.Aluminum and ice were used as solid collectors. Ethanol, ethanol-deionized (DI) water mixture, sodium dodecyl sulfate, Triton X-100, deionized water, and NaCl baths were used as liquid collectors. Ice, when surrounded by a conductive foil, produced excellent fiber alignment, but increased local humidity, inhibiting the continuous jet formation. The deionized water and NaCl bath exhibited minimum helicity. The surfactant bath produced different structures such as coiled, helical, and zig-zag with varied diameters. Ethanol and DI/Ethanol baths were found to retain the structure of the deformed fiber formed due to jet instability. The helicity of the fibers was observed to increase with decreasing surface tension. Incorporation of the magnetic phase affected the viscosity of the polymer solution and the hydrophobicity of the polystyrene fibers further influencing the obtained morphologies.