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Morphology and Crystalline Structure of Poly( ε ‐Caprolactone) Nanofiber via Porous Aluminium Oxide Template
Author(s) -
Chen Yang,
Zhang Lina,
Lu Xiaoying,
Zhao Ning,
Xu Jian
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.200600134
Subject(s) - materials science , nanofiber , crystallinity , scanning electron microscope , porosity , crystallization , caprolactone , differential scanning calorimetry , chemical engineering , extrusion , aluminium oxide , oxide , composite material , polymer , metallurgy , copolymer , physics , engineering , thermodynamics
Summary: Poly( ε ‐caprolactone) (PCL) nanofibers with a dimension of about 150 nm were successfully fabricated by using a process of extruding PCL solution via a porous aluminium oxide template and then solidifying in methanol. The morphology, melting behavior and crystalline structure of the nanofibers were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The results revealed that the weight‐average molecular weight ( $\overline M _{\rm w}$ ) of PCL hardly influenced the morphology of the nanofibers. However, the melting temperature ( T m ) of the PCL crystalline increased slightly from 55.4 to 57.5 °C with an increase in $\overline M _{\rm w}$ . The accessional pressure and the presence of the porous template played an important role in the improvement of the orientation and crystallization structures of the polymer chains when they were passing through the nano‐scale porous channel, leading to the conglomeration of the fiber and the much larger diameter than those from the pressure‐induced extrusion process. Furthermore, comparing the processes with and without accessional pressure, the crystallinity of the nanofibers obtained under 0.2 MPa pressure increased, and the diffraction for the (001) lattice plane occurred.SEM image of PCL nanofibers extruded via a porous aluminium oxide template with the aid of pressure.