Molecular Architecture and Enhanced Thermal Stability of Electrospun Poly(ε‐caprolactone)/Aminopropyl Isobutyl Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane Hybrid Fibers

Abstract

Polymer‐based electrospun fibers have been intensively studied as antimicrobial membranes, drug carriers, and energetic materials. Inorganic fillers or small molecules have been routinely added into polymer matrices in order to enhance product functions. However, the electrospinning process is kinetically controlled and solvent rapidly evaporates due to the large surface‐to‐volume ratio of spinning liquid jet. When electrospinning a multicomponent system, complex phase behavior may occur and give rise to interesting internal structures of resulting products. Such kinetically driven phenomena deserve more attention for optimizing product performance. Here, electrospun poly(ε‐caprolactone)(PCL)/aminopropyl‐heptaisobutyl‐polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (AMPOSS) fibers with AMPOSS content up to 30 wt% are studied as a model system to understand the impact of kinetically controlled phase separation on the fibers' internal structure, properties, and thermal stability. With sufficient AMPOSS loading, the hybrid fibers are found to have an AMPOSS‐shell/PCL‐core structure. The thermal stability of the as‐spun PCL/AMPOSS fibers is therefore greatly enhanced.

Gain Properties and Distributed Feedback Laser Performance of 7F6/Poly(Styrene) Blend Films: Potential Core Material for Plastic Optical Fiber Expanding the Bandwidth to Visible Region

“…These are important in fiber fabrication since the fiber has to undergo high temperature and different environment during manufacture process and practical deployment. [23][24][25] In addition, as it has been reported, polymer optical gain materials generally show strong phase separation when blended with the transparent matrix such as PMMA and PS. This phase separation represents poor compatibility between two materials, which can be induced by temperature, magnetic field, processing method, and even film thickness.…”

“…The thermal stability of the 7F6/PS blend is also improved significantly compared with the thermal stability of pristine 7F6. These are important in fiber fabrication since the fiber has to undergo high temperature and different environment during manufacture process and practical deployment . In addition, as it has been reported, polymer optical gain materials generally show strong phase separation when blended with the transparent matrix such as PMMA and PS.…”

High‐Performance Low‐k Poly(dicyclopentadiene) Nanocomposites as Achieved via Reactive Blending with Norbornene‐Functionalized Larger POSS

“…have been considered as ideal pore generators for reducing the materials' k values. [15,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] Meanwhile, the organic-inorganic hybrid nature and high reactivity of POSSs endow the resulting materials high thermal [28,[32][33][34][35] and mechanical performance, [36,37] large surface area and pore volume, [38][39][40][41] and unique surface properties. [42,43] Recently, we demonstrated that larger POSS (i.e., T 10 and T 12 POSSs) is better nano-building block and filler for fabricating thermally and mechanically robust low-k materials.…”