Structural Investigation on Electrospun Nanofibers from Postconsumer Polyester Textiles and PET Bottles

Abstract

This study investigates the structural and physical properties of electrospun nanofibers (NF) produced from postconsumer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) textile sources, including a no-dye polyester fabric, a 50/50 (by weight) mixture of red-and blue-dye polyester fabric, a polyester t-shirt, and from a postconsumer PET bottle. The postconsumer PET sources and their corresponding electrospun NF exhibited similar chemical structures and melting points. However, the electrospun PET NF showed distinct cold crystallization and sharper melt-crystallization behavior during rapid cooling as well as improved resolution of their Fourier transform infrared spectra. We hypothesize that this behavior can be attributed to the presence of locally ordered mesophases in the electrospun PET NF caused by rapid stretching of the electrically charged jet during electrospinning. The electrospun NF were found to be more amorphous, to have a lower degree of crystallinity, and to exhibit weakened signals of the trans conformers of the glycol units, when compared to their original postconsumer PET sources. Polyester-textile NF showed smaller average fiber diameters, higher degrees of crystallinity, higher melt-crystallization temperatures, and more rigidity than those of NF produced from PET bottles. The electrospun NF acquired from postconsumer PET textiles and bottles may hold promise as a versatile material for filtration, protective clothing, and environmental remediation.

Electrospun Nanofibrous Membranes from Discarded Polyester Textiles for Oil Sorption

“…For comparisons, we included the tensile test data of the PET t-shirt NFM from our previous paper. 18 The SP Tshirt NFMs used for these tests were produced using the same parameters as in our earlier work. 18 As presented in Figure S3a, the SP t-shirt NFM showed a lower Young's modulus.…”

“…18 The SP Tshirt NFMs used for these tests were produced using the same parameters as in our earlier work. 18 As presented in Figure S3a, the SP t-shirt NFM showed a lower Young's modulus. Additionally, in the stress−strain curve shown in Figure S3b differential thermogravimetric (DTG) curves of the SP t-shirt NFM, PET t-shirt NFM, and PET bottle NFM.…”

“…The melting temperature (T m ) values for the SP t-shirt NFM, PET t-shirt NFM, and PET bottle NFM were found to be 250.8, 250.7, and 244.1 °C, respectively, which are in agreement with reports in the scientific literature for PET's T m . 18,45 Cold crystallization temperatures (T cc ) for the SP tshirt NFM, PET t-shirt NFM, and PET bottle NFM were determined as 117.6, 117.0, and 126.0 °C, respectively. The lower T cc of the t-shirt NFMs may be attributed to lower molecular weights of PET in t-shirts compared with those in bottles.…”

“…In a previous study, we examined the structural differences between NFMs made from polyester textiles and PET bottles. 18 As a follow-up, we hereby present the effectiveness of electrospun NFMs produced from discarded polyester textiles for oil sorption, as shown in Scheme 1. The NFMs were produced from three different discarded polymer sources:…”

“…In our previous paper, we used a 50/50 solvent mixture of TFA and DCM. 18 In this study, we increased the TFA ratio to better dissolve Spandex fibers and produce thinner as well as more uniform fibers. Each solution exclusively contained either the SP t-shirt, PET tshirt, or PET bottle pieces, with no intermixing between them.…”