title: Rheology and pressurised gyration of starch and starch-loaded poly(ethylene oxide).
abstract: This work investigates the rheology and spinning of starch and starch-loaded poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) by pressurised gyration in order to prepare nanofibres. The spinning dope's rheological properties played a crucial role in fibre formation. Newtonian behaviour is observed in 1-20 wt% starch suspensions and non-Newtonian behaviour is found in all the PEO-starch mixtures. Pressurised gyration of the starch suspensions produced beads only but PEO-starch mixtures generated fibres. The fibre diameter of the PEO-starch samples is shown to be a function of polymer concentration and rotating speed of the gyration system. Fibre formation can only be facilitated below a certain working pressure. The concentration of starch in the PEO-starch mixtures is crucial in defining whether beaded or continuous fibres were generated and this is related to the composition of the spinning dope. FT-IR, XRD and microscopy studies indicated very good miscibility of starch and PEO in the nanofibres. The storage modulus of the PEO-starch were also studied as a function of temperature (30-150°C) and showed interesting results but it was not possible to deduce general trends valid for the entire temperature range.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, UK. Electronic address: suntharavathanan.mahalingam@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahalingam
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Technology, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK.
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, UK.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Edirisinghe
mesh_terms: D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012212:Rheology; D013213:Starch / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D013213:Starch
keywords: Gyration; Nanofibres; Polymer; Pressure; Starch