Polymer Gel Fibers Produced by UV-Reactive Electrospinning

Abstract

A potentially effective method to prepare fibers of polymer gels with chemically crosslinked structure using ultraviolet (UV)-reactive electrospinning (UV-ES) is demonstrated. The UV-ES method makes sure the polymerization (i. e., gelation) proceeds simultaneously with the spinning process through employing an UV irradiator between the nozzle and the target (fiber collector). The fiber manufacturing via UV-ES succeeded for both polymer gels of poly(N, N-dimethylacrylamide) (G(DMAA)) and poly(DMAA-stearyl acrylate-dodecyl acrylate) (G(DMAA-SA-DA)). It is found that the viscosity of gel reactions influences the fiber diameter greatly. Higher viscosity generally tends to result in an increase in diameter of fibers regardless of the electric field intensity. Depending on the spinning conditions, G(DMAA) fibers with a diameter ranging 2 nm ~ 5.5 µm, and G(DMAA-SA-DA) fibers with a diameter ranging 30~100 µm are produced. The FTIR measurement for the resultant G(DMAA) and G(DMAA-SA-DA) fibers illustrates the polymerization essentially completed while spinning the fibers. This study highlights the potential possibilities of the UV-ES method in practical fiber-manufacturing applications for polymer gels.