title: Co-electrospun poly(ɛ-caprolactone)/cellulose nanofibers-fabrication and characterization.
abstract: We report fabrication of poly (ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL)/cellulose (CEL) nanofiber blends via co-electrospinning for the possible use as biofilters and biosensor strips. Five different ratios of PCL to CEL were fabricated to investigate the wicking behavior. The cellulose acetate (CA) was taken as precursor to make cellulose nanofibers. Double nozzles were employed for jetting constituent polymers toward collector drum independently and resultant nanofibers webs were deacetylated in aqueous alkaline solution to convert CA into CEL as confirmed by FTIR spectra. FTIR further revealed that there is no effect of deacetylation on PCL nanofiber. The morphology of each blend webs under SEM showed uniform and bead-free nanofibers. Wicking behavior for five different ratios of PCL/CEL suggested that increasing CEL ratio in the blend enhanced the wicking front height; however, X-ray diffraction patterns of PCL/CEL showed a slight decrease in crystallinity.
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Group, Department of Textile Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Farooq
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Group, Department of Textile Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sidra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saleemi
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Group, Department of Textile Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan. Electronic address: zeeshan.khatri@faculty.muet.edu.pk.
authors.forename: Zeeshan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Khatri
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Group, Department of Textile Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan; Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad Ishaque
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Abro
authors.affiliation: Nano Fusion Technology Research Lab., Division of Frontier Fibers, Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research (ICCER), Shinshu University, Tokida 3-15-1, Ueda 386-8567, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Electronic address: kim@shinshu-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Ick-Soo
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000107:Acetylation; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D004560:Electricity; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D011091:Polyesters / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011091:Polyesters; C016240:polycaprolactone; D002482:Cellulose
keywords: Cellulose nanofiber; Co-electrospinning; PCL/CEL; Poly(ɛ-caprolactone); Wicking rate