Adsorptive Property of Nylon66 Nanofiber Assemblies Evaluated by Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

Nanofiber assemblies have been attractive materials for many engineering and medical applications because of their large surface area to volume ratio and unique porous structure. This study has demonstrated the concept that nanofiber assemblies can be used as receptor for Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). In this study, Nylon 66 nanofiber assemblies with different thickness and fiber diameters were prepared via electrospinning method. The assemblies' thickness and the average fiber diameters vary in a range of 1-15 μm and 80-360 nm, respectively. The transmittancy and the adsorptive property to the targeted material, Orutoran, were characterized by FT-IR. It was observed that fiber diameters pose a significant influence on the transmittancy of nanofiber assemblies relative to the thickness. The specific surface area of nanofiber assemblies was observed to increase by about 3 times when the average diameter of fibers decreased from 360 nm to 80 nm. In order to evaluate the adsorptive properties, calibration curves were obtained by FTIR at around 1000cm^-1 wavenumber. The mass of the Orutoran detected, as calculated with PLS, was plotted against the mass of Orutoran as deposited on the receptors. High coefficient of correlation was obtained for nanofiber assemblies with transmittancy higher than 98% at 1000cm^-1 and surface area larger than 20 cm²/g.