Coaxial Electrospinning with N, N-Dimethylacetamide for Preparing Methacrylate-Based Copolymer Nanofibers

Abstract

A modified coaxial electrospinning process is developed for producing thinner methacrylate-based copolymer nanofibers. With Eudragit® L-100 (EL100) as a model and using a poor volatile solvent N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) as sheath fluid, high quality EL100 nanofibers have been successfully generated using the developing coaxial process. SEM observations demonstrate that the nanofibers by the modified process have better quality than those produced by a single fluid electrospinning in terms of surface smoothness, nanofiber diameters and their distributions. The former has an average diameter of 240±30 nm while the later 490±170 nm. The mechanism is proposed that an appropriate DMAc surrounding to the core polymer jet helps to retain it in a fluid state to experience a longer time and more stable electrical drawing. The modified coaxial electrospinning process described here extends the capability of electrospinning process and opens a new way to obtain thinner polymer nanofibers with fine structural uniformity.