Tunable Wettability of Biodegradable Multilayer Sandwich-Structured Electrospun Nanofibrous Membranes

Abstract

This research aims to develop multilayer sandwich-structured electrospun nanofiber (ENF) membranes using biodegradable polymers. Hydrophilic regenerated cellulose (RC) and hydrophobic poly (lactic acid) (PLA)-based novel multilayer sandwich-structures were created by electrospinning on various copper collectors, including copper foil and 30-mesh copper gauzes, to modify the surface roughness for tunable wettability. Different collectors yielded various sizes and morphologies of the fabricated ENFs with different levels of surface roughness. Bead-free thicker fibers were collected on foil collectors. The surface roughness of the fine fibers collected on mesh collectors contributed to an increase in hydrophobicity. An RC-based triple-layered structure showed a contact angle of 48.2°, which is comparable to the contact angle of the single-layer cellulosic fabrics (47.0°). The polar shift of RC membranes on the wetting envelope is indicative of the possibility of tuning the wetting behavior by creating multilayer structures. Wettability can be tuned by creating multilayer sandwich structures consisting of RC and PLA. This study provides an important insight into the manipulation of the wetting behavior of polymeric ENFs in multilayer structures for applications including chemical protective clothing.

Bacteria Adhesion of Textiles Influenced by Wettability and Pore Characteristics of Fibrous Substrates

“…However, how nano- and microscale roughness patterns in textile influence bacteria adhesion could not be generalized, since bacteria’s size and shape also play important roles in interactions with material surfaces. The complexity also comes from the fact that the roughness, together with surface energy, affects the wetting property [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. When roughness is introduced onto a low surface energy material, the surface’s wettability is further reduced, ultimately leading to a superhydrophobic surface.…”

Synthesis, Fabrication, and Characterization of Functionalized Polydiacetylene Containing Cellulose Nanofibrous Composites for Colorimetric Sensing of Organophosphate Compounds

“…Figure 3 shows the average diameter of the fibers with the corresponding standard deviation as a function of polymer concentration in the electrospinning fluid. The fibers in the membrane, irrespective of the solution concentration and injection speed, are fluffy and show less inter-fiber adhesion due to the presence of a charged acetate group on the fiber surface [ 35 ].…”

“…The carbonyl (C=O) peak shift toward a lower wavenumber indicates the decrease in the CO group after hydrolysis. The appearance of a broad absorption peak at 3350 cm −1 after deacetylation indicates the development of a large number of hydroxyl (O-H) groups due to the successful deacetylation process, indicating the successful conversion of the CA-PCDA-HBA structure into the RC-PCDA-HBA structure without any damage to the chemical structure of PCDA-HBA [ 35 ].…”

“…The elongation has not been largely improved due to the reduced flexibility of PCDA-HBA. However, the composites exhibited comparable mechanical properties of the textile structures [ 35 ].…”

“…The deacetylation/hydrolysis of the CA-PCDA-HBA composite membranes was carried out to remove acetyl groups from the composites following a previously reported method [ 34 , 35 ]. In short, a 0.1 M NaOH solution was prepared in deionized (DI) water, which was then used to prepare a deacetylation solution comprising 4:1 NaOH: EtOH.…”