Effect of solvent treatment on morphology, crystallinity and tensile properties of cellulose acetate nanofiber mats

Abstract

Aligned nanofiber mats were prepared from cellulose acetate using an electrospinning technique. The nanofiber mats were then immersed in an ethanol/acetone mixture. The solvent treatment led to denser, more compact fibrous structure and slight decrease in fiber alignment. It increased fiber diameter and polymer crystallinity within fibers. These effects resulted in increase in the tensile strength of fibrous mats. Solvent treatment may offer a simple, efficient approach to improve the mechanical strength of nanofibrous mats.

Keywords:

• Cellulose acetate
• nanofibers
• solvent treatment
• tensile properties

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Science & Technology Support Program, the Huazhong Agricultural University Scientific & Technological Self-innovation Foundation and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The scholarship from Chinese Scholarship Council awarded to the first author to visit Deakin University is also acknowledged.