The Effect of Electrical Polarity on the Diameter of Biobased Polybutylene Succinate Fibers during Melt Electrospinning

Abstract

Melt electrospinning is a simple, versatile, and widely used technique for the production of microfibers and sub-microfibers. Polybutylene succinate (PBS) is a promising raw material for the preparation of melt-electrospun fibers at the laboratory scale. The inclusion of additives in the PBS melt can reduce the final fiber diameter, but economically feasible larger-scale processes remain challenging. The fiber diameter can also be reduced by machine optimization, although this is expensive due to the complexity of melt-electrospinning devices. Changes in electrical field polarity have provided a low-cost strategy to reduce the diameter of fibers produced by solution-electrospinning, but there is little information about the effect of this parameter on the final diameter of melt-electrospun fibers. We therefore determined the effect of field polarity on the diameter of melt-electrospun PBS fibers at the laboratory scale and investigated the transferability of these results to our 600-nozzle pilot-scale device. Changing the polarity achieved a significant reduction in fiber diameter of ~50% at the laboratory scale and ~30% at the pilot scale, resulting in a minimum average fiber diameter of 10.88 µm. Although the effect of field polarity on fiber diameter was similar at both scales, the fibers in the web stuck together at the laboratory scale but not at the pilot scale. We have developed an inexpensive method to reduce the diameter of melt-electrospun PBS fibers and our data provide insight into the transferability of melt electrospinning from the laboratory to a pilot-scale machine.

Performance Spectrum of Home-Compostable Biopolymer Fibers Compared to a Petrochemical Alternative

“…All three curves also shifted to the right. PBS showed the most significant shift towards a higher M w , which may be caused by chain extension due to the dwell time in the process [ 26 ]. A general increase in M w and M n was observed, along with a decline in polydispersity, which may reflect the chain extension of all three polymers.…”

Pilot-Scale Melt Electrospinning of Polybutylene Succinate Fiber Mats for a Biobased and Biodegradable Face Mask

“…We previously reported the low throughput of the pilot-scale device resulting in slow fiber deposition [18]. This gives the PBS sufficient time to solidify after leaving the nozzle but before reaching the collector, so the fibers do not weld together.…”

“…To overcome this issue, we (1) enclosed the spinneret in a custom-made glass climate chamber or (2) applied an infrared heat source (LGA, Nuernberg, Germany), thus keeping the fibers warm after extrusion to delay crystallization. We previously reported the low throughput of the pilot-scale device resulting in slow fiber deposition [18]. This gives the PBS sufficient time to solidify after leaving the nozzle but before reaching the collector, so the fibers do not weld together.…”

“…Melt electrospinning is a more efficient process and there is no need for any solvents, making it a more environmentally sustainable alternative [14]. Research has therefore focused on optimizing the melt-electrospinning process to produce nanoscale fibers, especially from biobased and biodegradable polymers [18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…The melt electrospinning of biopolymers such as PBS has yielded promising results [18,19,30], but we are unaware of any prototype face masks (or filter layers) produced by pilot-scale melt electrospinning. We previously reported the first melt-electrospun PBS fibers in the low micrometer range prepared on a pilot-scale device [18]. The minimum fiber diameter achieved thus far is 10.88 µm [21].…”