Publication
Chain extension in electrospun polystyrene fibres: a SANS study
| dc.contributor.author | Mohan, Saeed D. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Mitchell, Geoffrey | |
| dc.contributor.author | Davis, Fred J. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-12-05T14:39:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-12-05T14:39:12Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2011 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Small angle neutron scattering techniques were used to quantify the size and shape of the chain conformation in electrospun fibres of atactic polystyrene prepared from solutions in methyl ethyl ketone. Aligned arrays of fibres were collected onto a rotating collector with tangential velocity varying between 0 ms-1 and ∼15 ms-1. The measured radii of gyration of the polystyrene chains were found to be slightly higher than that expected for samples prepared from solutions in the concentrated regime. The ratio of the radius of gyration parallel and perpendicular to the chain axis was found to be ∼1.05 in contrast to the substantial macroscopic shape transformation intrinsic to electrospinning. When the tangential velocity of the rotating collector was greater than the flight velocity of the fibres (ca. 4 ms -1), a further extension of the polymer chains was observed with a ratio of the radii of gyration increasing to 1.20 at the highest collector speeds. It is proposed that the heterogeneous processes involved, particularly solvent evaporation and the formation of a polymer skin during electrospinning play a significant role in determining the level of molecular anisotropy in the fibres. © 2011 The Royal Society of Chemistry. | eng |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This work was supported by the EPSRC, the SANS experiments were possible through an award of beam time at the STFC ISIS Facility. The microscopy was carried using facilities in the Centre for Advanced Microscopy and the NMR using the Chemical Analysis Facility at the University of Reading. We thank Drs Richard Heenham and Steve King for their help with the SANS experiments. | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Mohan S.D., Mitchell G.R., Davis F.J., Chain extension in electrospun polystyrene fibres: A SANS study (2011) Soft Matter, 7 (9), pp. 4397 - 4404, Cited 29 times. DOI: 10.1039/c0sm01442g | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1039/c0sm01442g | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1744-683X | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1744-6848 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/14927 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.peerreviewed | yes | |
| dc.publisher | Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) | |
| dc.relation.hasversion | https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/79954988839 | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Soft Matter | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Electrospinning | |
| dc.subject | Ketones | |
| dc.subject | Neutron scattering | |
| dc.subject | Polystyrenes | |
| dc.subject | Rotation | |
| dc.title | Chain extension in electrospun polystyrene fibres: a SANS study | eng |
| dc.type | journal article | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.endPage | 4404 | |
| oaire.citation.issue | 9 | |
| oaire.citation.startPage | 4397 | |
| oaire.citation.title | Soft Matter | |
| oaire.citation.volume | 7 | |
| oaire.version | http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 | |
| person.familyName | Mitchell | |
| person.givenName | Geoffrey | |
| person.identifier | 166356 | |
| person.identifier.ciencia-id | E41A-ABDD-1FC7 | |
| person.identifier.orcid | 0000-0001-7977-7610 | |
| person.identifier.scopus-author-id | 7403103397 | |
| relation.isAuthorOfPublication | 48c8066b-023e-4405-b462-49d28af000d1 | |
| relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery | 48c8066b-023e-4405-b462-49d28af000d1 |