Abstract
The study reports a nanomanufacturing method that facilitates post-drawing of electrospun polymer nanofibers. Post-drawing is critical in conventional microfiber processing to enhance mechanical strength, but has been difficult to implement with nanofibers. Here, a parallel automated track collector was designed to permit continuous processing of thousands of individual nanofibers per minute under highly controllable drawing conditions. Post-drawing systematically induced macromolecular alignment and altered the chemical bond composition of polycaprolactone nanofibers with increasing draw ratio. The strength and stiffness of fibers with a draw ratio of 4 were enhanced by 7 and 15 times respectively and their mechanical properties exceeded previously reported values for conventional and nanoscale polycaprolactone structures.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 243-250 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Polymer |
Volume | 103 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 26 2016 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Organic Chemistry
- Polymers and Plastics
- Materials Chemistry