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Tailoring Pore Structure of Ultralight Electrospun Sponges by Solid Templating
Author(s) -
Deuber Fabian,
Mousavi Sara,
Hofer Marco,
Adlhart Christian
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201601084
Subject(s) - electrospinning , nanofiber , materials science , pullulan , porosity , microstructure , chemical engineering , polymer , membrane , sponge , nanotechnology , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , polysaccharide , engineering , biochemistry , botany , biology
Freeze‐casted nanofiber based sponges or aerogels exhibit a hierarchical porous structure. Pore formation is only partially understood. Therefore, we studied the underlying solid templating mechanism. We were able to tailor the secondary pore size between 9.5 and 123 μm while retaining the smaller primary pores known from electrospun nanofiber membranes. To understand the effect of microstructure on the sponges’ bulk properties, mass flow through the pores and interaction with the sponges’ internal surface were investigated. By solely altering the sponges’ microstructure we indeed found tunability in permeability by a factor 7 and in filtration efficiency by a factor of 220. Hence, pore architecture of nanofiber based sponges is a key element for their performance. The selected pullulan/PVA polymer blends and aqueous electrospinning conditions are benign and allow the facile adaptation of these ultralight highly porous sponges for a large number of applications.