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Effect of annealing‐induced interfacial demixing on crystallization of PEO confined in coaxial electrospun nanofibers
Author(s) -
Zou ShuFen,
Guo XiaoShuai,
Wang RuiYang,
Fan Bin,
Xu JunTing,
Fan ZhiQiang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.45760
Subject(s) - materials science , crystallization , annealing (glass) , differential scanning calorimetry , coaxial , polyacrylonitrile , nanofiber , chemical engineering , polymer , electrospinning , ethylene oxide , polystyrene , polymer chemistry , composite material , copolymer , physics , electrical engineering , engineering , thermodynamics
Glassy polymer nanofibers with spatially confined poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) were fabricated by coaxial electrospinning of PEO with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) or polystyrene. The effect of melt‐annealing on the crystallization behavior of the confined PEOs was studied using differential scanning calorimetry. It is found that the crystallization behavior of the confined PEOs varies with annealing temperature ( T a ), annealing time ( t a ), and molecular weight of PEO. Notably, it is observed that the crystallization temperature ( T c ) and melting temperature ( T m ) of PEO increase with prolongation of t a , for PEO600K/PAN and PEO2K/PAN coaxial electrospun fibers. This phenomenon can be interpreted by the annealing‐induced demixing at the core‐sheath interface. After the coaxial electrospinning, the core and sheath of the PEO/PAN coaxial fibers are partially compatible due to the miscible solvents used for the core and sheath polymers. Upon annealing, demixing occurs at the core‐sheath interface, leading to improved crystallizability of PEO. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 45760.