TY - JOUR
T1 - Melt blown nanofibers
T2 - Fiber diameter distributions and onset of fiber breakup
AU - Ellison, Christopher J.
AU - Phatak, Alhad
AU - Giles, David W.
AU - Macosko, Christopher W.
AU - Bates, Frank S.
PY - 2007/5/21
Y1 - 2007/5/21
N2 - Poly(butylene terephthalate), polypropylene, and polystyrene nanofibers with average diameters less than 500 nm have been produced by a single orifice melt blowing apparatus using commercially viable processing conditions. This result is a major step towards closing the gap between melt blowing technology and electrospinning in terms of the ability to produce nano-scale fibers. Furthermore, analysis of fiber diameter distributions reveals they are well described by a log-normal distribution function regardless of average fiber diameter, indicating that the underlying fiber attenuation mechanisms are retained even when producing nanofibers. However, a comparison of the breadth of the distributions between mats with differing average fiber diameters indicates that the dependence of the breadth with average fiber diameter is not universal (i.e., it is material dependent). Finally, under certain processing conditions, we observe fiber breakup that we believe is driven by surface tension and these instabilities may represent the onset of an underlying fundamental limit to the process.
AB - Poly(butylene terephthalate), polypropylene, and polystyrene nanofibers with average diameters less than 500 nm have been produced by a single orifice melt blowing apparatus using commercially viable processing conditions. This result is a major step towards closing the gap between melt blowing technology and electrospinning in terms of the ability to produce nano-scale fibers. Furthermore, analysis of fiber diameter distributions reveals they are well described by a log-normal distribution function regardless of average fiber diameter, indicating that the underlying fiber attenuation mechanisms are retained even when producing nanofibers. However, a comparison of the breadth of the distributions between mats with differing average fiber diameters indicates that the dependence of the breadth with average fiber diameter is not universal (i.e., it is material dependent). Finally, under certain processing conditions, we observe fiber breakup that we believe is driven by surface tension and these instabilities may represent the onset of an underlying fundamental limit to the process.
KW - Electrospinning
KW - Melt blowing
KW - Nanofibers
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U2 - 10.1016/j.polymer.2007.04.005
DO - 10.1016/j.polymer.2007.04.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34248153631
SN - 0032-3861
VL - 48
SP - 3306
EP - 3316
JO - Polymer
JF - Polymer
IS - 11
ER -