Insight into the Wetting Property of a Nanofiber Membrane by the Geometrical Potential

Abstract

Background: There are many patents on design of a material surface with special wetting property, however, theoretical methods are lacked. The wetting property of a nanofiber member has attracted much attention. A material with different sizes or with different structures possesses different wetting properties. No theory can explain the phenomenon. Methods: The contact angle, fiber fineness, pore size and layer of the nanofiber membrane were tested. The contact angles were measured for membranes with different thicknesses. The geometrical potential is used to explain the experimental phenomenon. Results: The wetting property of a nanofiber membrane mainly depends on fiber diameter and thickness. Conclusion: Wetting property of a PVA nanofiber membrane depends upon not only the hydrophilic groups, but also the geometrical structure of its surface, the latter prevails when the porous size of the membrane tends to a nanoscale, and the wetting property can be inverted from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity.

Tension Stimulation of Tenocytes in Aligned Hyaluronic Acid/Platelet-Rich Plasma-Polycaprolactone Core-Sheath Nanofiber Membrane Scaffold for Tendon Tissue Engineering

“…This lower contact angle is due to preferential spreading of the water droplet along the axis of the nanofiber, with no barriers to motion of the contact line. Since the geometric potential theory cannot be used in this case, the apparent decrease of contact angles indicates higher hydrophilicity for Align + , when observed perpendicularly to the nanofiber axis than parallelly [ 38 , 39 ].…”

Dropping in electrospinning process: A general strategy for fabrication of microspheres

“…According to the mass equation, solvent evaporation [15,16] will also affect the microsphere size, we will discuss this in a forthcoming paper. By controlling the dropping parameters, we can also produce microsphere-fiber blends with tenable porosity for biomimic design of nanofiber membrane with maximal air permeability [17,18] like that of silkworm cocoons [19] , and can revivify the lost technology of Fangzhu, which is to catch water from air [20]. The present theory is also valid for other spinning methods like the bubble electrospinning [1,3,10,11,14,16].…”

Fabrication of PVDF/PES nanofibers with unsmooth fractal surfaces by electrospinning: A general strategy and formation mechanism

“…Most chemical properties, mechanical properties and electronic properties are relative to the surface energy, or the geometric potential [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Any surface can produce a boundary-induced potential, for example, the gravity of the Earth [30].…”