A novel shortened electrospun nanofiber modified with a ‘concentrated’ polymer brush
Yoshikawa, Chiaki; Zhang, Kun; Zawadzak, Ewelina; Kobayashi, Hisatoshi; Yoshikawa, Chiaki; World Premier International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan; Zhang, Kun; World Premier International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan; Zawadzak, Ewelina; World Premier International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan; Kobayashi, Hisatoshi; Bomaterials Center, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0047, Japan; CREST, JST, Sanbancho, Chiyoda, Tokyo 102-0075, Japan
Журнал:
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials
Дата:
2011-02-01
Аннотация:
We report the fabrication of shortened electrospun polymer fibers with a well-defined concentrated polymer brush. We first prepared electrospun nanofibers from a random copolymer of styrene and 4-vinylbenzyl 2-bromopropionate, with number-average molecular weight M<sub>n</sub>=105 200 and weight-average molecular weight M<sub>w</sub>=296 700 (M<sub>w</sub>/M<sub>n</sub>=2.82). The fibers had a diameter of 593±74 nm and contained initiating sites for surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). Then, SI-ATRP of hydrophilic styrene sodium sulfonate (SSNa) was carried out in the presence of a free initiator and the hydrophobic fibers. Gel permeation chromatography confirmed that M<sub>n</sub> and M<sub>w</sub>/M<sub>n</sub> values were almost the same for free polymers and graft polymers. M<sub>n</sub> agreed well with the theoretical prediction, and M<sub>w</sub>/M<sub>n</sub> was relatively low (<1.3) in all the examined cases, indicating that this polymerization proceeded in a living manner. Using the values of the graft amount measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the surface area, and M<sub>n</sub>, we calculated the graft density σ as 0.22 chains nm<sup>−2</sup>. This value was nearly equal to the density obtained on silicon wafers (σ=0.24 chains nm<sup>−2</sup>), which is categorized into the concentrated brush regime. Finally, we mechanically cut the fibers with a concentrated poly(SSNa) brush by a homogenizer. With increasing cutting time, the fiber length became shorter and more homogenous (11±17 μm after 3 h). The shortened fibers exhibited excellent water dispersibility owing to the hydrophilic poly(SSNa) brush layer.
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