Open Access Conference Proceedings

The process of electrospinning can be influenced strongly by a change in the electrical conductivity of the spinning solution. Plasma-mediated modification of organic polymer powders is known to alter their surface polarity. The introduction of plasma-modified powders into the liquid phase may introduce novel routes for charge formation within the resulting dispersion. In addition, plasma generated directly within the spinning solution is also capable of producing an ample amount of charged species, contributing to increased conductivity. The magnitude of these effects is still rather unexplored, especially for non-aqueous solutions which are used in electrospinning recipes. In the presented work, three distinct approaches of plasma modification were investigated for the preparation of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) mats from PAN/dimethylformamide (DMF) solution. PAN powders were modified either by Ar/N2 radiofrequency jet or by dielectric surface barrier discharge in air, both operated at atmospheric pressure. In addition, the same RF jet was used to modify the PAN/DMF solution. A thorough analysis of achieved changes on treated powders, solution as well as electrospun fibers was performed, including confocal microscopy, SEM, EDS, XPS, surface free energy evaluation of powders, and solution viscosity, zeta potential, and electrical conductivity. Modified powders exhibited increased oxygen content, mainly on their surface. The polar component of the surface free energy was higher for the dielectric barrier discharge modification. Prepared solutions had higher viscosity values, and higher conductivity, but lower values of zeta potential. The electrospinning process resulted in fibers with slightly bigger diameters than the reference.

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