Optical transparency of electrospun nanofibrous membranes: A study on influencing parameters

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of five parameters, including fiber diameter, crystallinity, thickness, packing density, and surface roughness, on the transparency of electrospun polymethyl methacrylate/polydimethylsiloxane (PMMA/PDMS) nanofibrous membranes after heat treatment. The PMMA/PDMS membranes produced at an electrospinning voltage of 20 kV reaches 54.85% transparency with the diameter 0.759 μm, crystallinity 14.81%, thickness 9.2 μm, roughness 0.659 μm, and packing density α 0.0081% after the heat treatment from 80 to 200°C. In general, the PMMA/PDMS membranes present higher transparency with the decrease of diameter, crystallinity, thickness, roughness, and packing density. The influencing parameters on transparency are first quantified by multiple nonlinear regressions with a R2 of the model equals 0.869. A composite scaled sensitivity (CSSj) analysis shows that the most influential factor is the nanofibrous membrane thickness with a CSSj value of 1, followed by fiber diameter with a CSSj value of 0.515. The CSSj values for packing density, membrane roughness and crystallinity are 0.385, 0.361, and 0.173, respectively. Finally, the nanofibrous membrane transparency is a function of nanofiber material density, fiber diameter, and nanofibrous membrane thickness based on the Chandrasekhar radiative transfer equation and the Rayleigh's Scattering Theory.

High oxygen barrier property of polyethylene composite films with bilayer polyvinyl alcohol coating for emergency foods in high‐humidity environments

“…43 As the roughness increase, the transparency may decrease. 44 However, PVA coating might fill the invisible gullies that were produced during the corona treatment. It helped to make the surface of composite films become flat again.…”