Yoshikawa C, Zhang K, Zawadzak E, Kobayashi H. A novel shortened electrospun nanofiber modified with a 'concentrated' polymer brush.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF ADVANCED MATERIALS 2011;
12:015003. [PMID:
27877380 PMCID:
PMC5090402 DOI:
10.1088/1468-6996/12/1/11660949]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2010] [Revised: 03/03/2011] [Accepted: 01/11/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
We report the fabrication of shortened electrospun polymer fibers with a well-defined concentrated polymer brush. We first prepared electrospun nanofibers from a random copolymer of styrene and 4-vinylbenzyl 2-bromopropionate, with number-average molecular weight Mn=105 200 and weight-average molecular weight Mw=296 700 (Mw/Mn=2.82). The fibers had a diameter of 593±74 nm and contained initiating sites for surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). Then, SI-ATRP of hydrophilic styrene sodium sulfonate (SSNa) was carried out in the presence of a free initiator and the hydrophobic fibers. Gel permeation chromatography confirmed that Mn and Mw/Mn values were almost the same for free polymers and graft polymers. Mn agreed well with the theoretical prediction, and Mw/Mn was relatively low (<1.3) in all the examined cases, indicating that this polymerization proceeded in a living manner. Using the values of the graft amount measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the surface area, and Mn, we calculated the graft density σ as 0.22 chains nm-2. This value was nearly equal to the density obtained on silicon wafers (σ=0.24 chains nm-2), which is categorized into the concentrated brush regime. Finally, we mechanically cut the fibers with a concentrated poly(SSNa) brush by a homogenizer. With increasing cutting time, the fiber length became shorter and more homogenous (11±17 μm after 3 h). The shortened fibers exhibited excellent water dispersibility owing to the hydrophilic poly(SSNa) brush layer.
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