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Aging effect of atmospheric pressure plasma jet treated polycaprolactone polymer solutions on electrospinning properties
Author(s) -
Grande Silvia,
Van Guyse Joachim,
Nikiforov Anton Y.,
Onyshchenko Iuliia,
Asadian Mahtab,
Morent Rino,
Hoogenboom Richard,
De Geyter Nathalie
Publication year - 2020
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.48914
Subject(s) - polycaprolactone , nanofiber , electrospinning , materials science , surface tension , polymer , atmospheric pressure plasma , chemical engineering , polyester , viscosity , atmospheric pressure , composite material , polymer chemistry , rheology , plasma , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering , oceanography , geology
In previous work, an atmospheric pressure plasma jet was applied to successfully improve the electrospinnability of poly‐ ε ‐caprolactone (PCL) which enabled the fabrication of beadless nanofibers. In this paper, we report the aging effect of the plasma treatment to evaluate the robustness of the developed process. For this purpose, plasma‐treated PCL polymer solutions with different exposure time were stored for 1 and 8 days and the aged solutions were analyzed in terms of conductivity, viscosity, surface tension, pH, and polymer molecular weight. During storage, the surface tension and acidity of the plasma‐treated solutions were maintained constant. However, the viscosity was found to be significantly lower after 8 days which was attributed to PCL degradation. Electrospinning of all stored PCL solutions resulted in the generation of beadless PCL nanofibers. The plasma treatment effects were thus found to be highly stable over time and capable of producing high‐quality PCL nanofibers up to 8 days. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137 , 48914.