title: Self-Assembly-Driven Electrospinning: The Transition from Fibers to Intact Beaded Morphologies.
abstract: Polymer beads have attracted considerable interest for use in catalysis, drug delivery, and photonics due to their particular shape and surface morphology. Electrospinning, typically used for producing nanofibers, can also be used to fabricate polymer beads if the solution has a sufficiently low concentration. In this work, a novel approach for producing more uniform, intact beads is presented by electrospinning self-assembled block copolymer (BCP) solutions. This approach allows a relatively high polymer concentration to be used, yet with a low degree of entanglement between polymer chains due to microphase separation of the BCP in a selective solvent system. Herein, to demonstrate the technology, a well-studied polystyrene-poly(ethylene butylene)-polystyrene triblock copolymer is dissolved in a co-solvent system. The effect of solvent composition on the characteristics of the fibers and beads is intensively studied, and the mechanism of this fiber-to-bead is found to be dependent on microphase separation of the BCP.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
authors.forename: Linge
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK.
authors.forename: Paul D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Topham
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Brook Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 7HF, UK.
authors.forename: Oleksandr O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Mykhaylyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Brook Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 7HF, UK.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Brook Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 7HF, UK.
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Brook Hill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 7HF, UK.
authors.forename: J Patrick A
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Fairclough
authors.affiliation: DUBBLE CRG, ESRF, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP 220, F-38043, Grenoble Cédex 9, France.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bras
mesh_terms: D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers
keywords: beads; block copolymers; electrospinning; microphase separation; self-assembly