Nanofiber production from rose water and mate plant extract solutions using environmentally friendly electrospinning

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to produce nanofibers from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer using natural solvents such as rose water, rose extract and mate plant extract by the environmentally friendly electrospinning or green electrospinning technique in other words and it was also aimed to investigate the morphological properties of produced nanofibers. For this purpose, nanofibers having 7 different morphologies were produced from 4% PVA aqueous solutions. The morphologies of the produced nanofibers were analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As a result of these analyses, it was observed that uniform nanofiber morphology was formed in nanofiber productions made with distilled water, while in the others, dense bead structure was formed at low voltages and nanofiber morphology with reduced bead amount at high voltages was observed. In all electrospinning experiments, it was observed that the nanofibers were randomly collected on the collector plate. It was observed that the nanofibers obtained from the solutions prepared from solvents other than distilled water, especially the one from the mate plant extract, had a low bead structure and a smooth morphology. These results showed that environmentally friendly nanofibers can be produced from natural solvents by electrospinning technique and their morphological properties can be improved via modification in process conditions. It is thought that the nanofibers produced within the scope of the study are candidate materials especially for health, hygiene and food applications since they are produced in pure properties without using any other additives.