Review of electrospun hydrogel nanofiber system: Synthesis,Properties and Applications

Hydrogel-based nanofibers or vice versa are a relatively new class of nanomaterials, in which hydrogels are structured in nanofibrous form. Structure and size of the material directly governs its functionality, therefore, in hydrogel science, the nanofibrous form of hydrogels enables its usage in targeted applications. Hydrogel nanofiber system combines the desirable properties of both hydrogel and nanofiber like flexibility, soft consistency, elasticity, and biocompatibility due to high water content, large surface area to volume ratio, low density, small pore size and interconnected pores, high stiffness, tensile strength, and surface functionality. Swelling behavior is a critical property of hydrogels that is significantly increased in hydrogel nanofibers due to their small size. Electrospinning is the most popular method to fabricate “hydrogel nanofibers,” while other processes like self-assembly, solution blowing and template synthesis also exist. Merging the characteristics of both hydrogels and nanofibers in one system allows applications in drug delivery, tissue engineering, actuation, wound dressing, photoluminescence, light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS), waterproof breathable membranes, and enzymatic immobilization. Treatment of wastewater, detection, and adsorption of metal ions are also emerging applications. In this review paper, we intend to summarize in detail about electrospun “hydrogel nanofiber” in relation to its synthesis, properties, and applications.     

Flexible,Mechanically Stable,Porous Self-Standing Microfiber Network Membranes of Covalent Organic Frameworks: Preparation Method and Characterization

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) show advantageous characteristics, such as an ordered pore structure and a large surface area for gas storage and separation, energy storage, catalysis, and molecular separation. However, COFs usually exist as difficult-to-process powders, and preparing continuous, robust, flexible, foldable, and rollable COF membranes is still a challenge. Herein, such COF membranes with fiber morphology for the first time prepared via a newly introduced template-assisted framework process are reported. This method uses electrospun porous polymer membranes as a sacrificial large dimension template for making self-standing COF membranes. The porous COF fiber membranes, besides having high crystallinity, also show a large surface area (1153 m² g⁻¹), good mechanical stability, excellent thermal stability, and flexibility. This study opens up the possibility of preparation of large dimension COF membranes and their derivatives in a simple way and hence shows promise in technical applications in separation, catalysis, and energy in the future.     

Deacetylated Cellulose Acetate/Polyurethane Composite Nanofiber Membranes with Highly Efficient Oil/Water Separation and Excellent Mechanical Properties

Nowadays, oil pollution has become more serious, which causes great threats both to the ecological environment and human life. In this study, a novel type of multifunctional deacetylated cellulose acetate/polyurethane (d-M_CA:M_TPU) composite nanofiber membranes for oil/water separation are successfully fabricated by electrospinning, which show super-amphiphilicity in air, super-hydrophilicity in oil, and oleophobicity in water. All the d-M_CA:M_TPU composite nanofiber membranes with different mass ratios can be used as water-removing, oil-removing, and emulsion separation substance only by gravity driving force. The highest separation flux for water and oil reaches up to 37 000 and 74 000 L m⁻² h⁻¹, respectively, and all the separation efficiencies are more than 99%. They have outstanding comprehensive mechanics performance, which can be controlled by simply adjusting the mass ratios. They show excellent antifouling and self-cleaning ability, endowing powerful cyclic stability and reusability. Those results show that d-M_CA:M_TPU composite nanofiber membranes have great application prospects in oil/water separation.     

Preparation of aligned polyetherimide fiber by electrospinning

Fifteen to 20 wt % polyetherimide (PEI) solutions with 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) were prepared. The electrical conductivity and surface tension of the solutions were determined. The fiber spinning technique of electrospinning was optimized in order to prepare unidirectionally aligned, structurally oriented nanofiber tows. The morphology of the PEI fibers was investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The well-aligned fibers with diameters between 0.58 and 0.90 μm (FESEM) were collected by electrospinning 20 wt % PEI solutions with NMP in the range of 8–10 kV onto a target rotating with a surface velocity 9.8 m/s. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

同轴电纺法TiO2/g-C3N4的制备及光催化性能研究

传统的静电纺丝法使用单一的毛细管状喷头喷丝,通常用于制备实心且表面光滑单一组分的纳米纤维,无法得到具有多种功能性结构的复合材料,应用范围较窄。以酞酸丁酯和尿素为原料,采用同轴静电纺丝法成功制备了TiO₂/g-C₃N₄复合材料,并用X射线衍射（XRD）、傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）、紫外可见漫反射光谱（UV-vis DRS）、场发射扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和Brunauer-Emmett-Teller （BET）分析对样品进行了表征,通过光催化降解亚甲基蓝溶液（MB）研究了不同g-C₃N₄添加量对TiO₂/g-C₃N₄复合材料光催化性能的影响。实验结果表明,采用同轴静电纺丝法结合500℃煅烧工艺成功制备了大比表面积及高光催化性能的TiO₂/g-C₃N₄复合材料。当g-C₃N₄添加量为0.15 g时,TiO₂/g-C₃N₄复合材料对亚甲基蓝溶液（MB）的光催化降解效率可达93.8%,且经过5次重复实验后降解率仍可达80%以上。     

Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulation: A Review on Investigating Mesoscale Properties of Polymer Systems

Polymer systems have typical multiscale characteristics, both in space and time. The mesoscopic properties of polymers are difficult to describe through traditional experimental approaches. Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a simulation method used for solving mesoscale problems of complex fluids and soft matter. The mesoscopic properties of polymer systems, such as conformation, dynamics, and transport properties, have been studied extensively using DPD. This paper briefly summarizes the application of DPD to research involving microchannel flow, electrospinning, free-radical polymerization, polymer self-assembly processes, polymer electrolyte fuel cells, and biomedical materials. The main features and possible development avenues of DPD are described as well.     

PAN/FPU Composite Nanofiber Membrane with Superhydrophobic and Superoleophobic Surface as a Filter Element for High-Efficiency Protective Masks

Recently, because of the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand for various types of filter elements in protective materials has increased globally. Furthermore, new requirements for the filtration performance of PM2.5 liquid (oil) particles have been put forward. In this work, Superhydrophobic and superoleophobic composite nanofibers with excellent filtration capacity for oil and salt particles are developed through the modification of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) by fluoro-polyurethane (FPU) doping. The results show that the PAN/FPU composite nanofibers doped with 9 wt% FPU has a uniform fiber morphology with a diameter of 240 ± 30 nm. Compared to the pure PAN nanofibers, the water-based contact angle of PAN/FPU increases from 90 ± 5° to 151 ± 5°, and the oil-based contact angle increases from 58 ± 2° to 152 ± 3°. Importantly, at a high flow rate of 95 L min⁻¹, the filtration efficiency of the PAN/FPU nanofiber membrane for 0.3 µm oil particles increases from 92 ± 1% to 99.2 ± 0.1%. After cyclic loading, the filtration efficiency of 0.3 µm oil particles remains above 98%. Meanwhile, the filtration efficiency for 0.3 µm salt particles remains at 98.23 ± 0.1%. The PAN/FPU nanofiber membrane developed in this work is effective in applications and has good market prospects as a protective filtration material.     

Effect of solution properties on nanofibrous structure of electrospun poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid)

Electrospinning of poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) in chloroform or 1,1,1,3,3,3‐hexafluoro‐2‐propanol (HFIP) was investigated, focusing on its solution parameters, to develop nonwoven biodegradable nanofibrous structures for tissue engineering. PLGA nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning of 15 wt % PLGA solution and the resulting average fiber diameters were varied with the range of 270–760 nm, depending on solution property. When small amounts of benzyl triethylammonium chloride (BTEAC) was added to the PLGA/chloroform solution, the average diameter was decreased from 760 to 450 nm and the fibers were densely amounted in a straight shape. In addition, the average fiber diameter (270 nm) of nanofibers electrospun from polar HFIP solvent was much smaller than that (760 nm) of nanofibers electrospun from nonpolar chloroform solvent. Therefore, it could be concluded that conductivity or dielectric constant of the PLGA solution was a major parameter affecting the morphology and diameter of the electrospun PLGA fibers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 1214–1221, 2006     

静电纺纳米纤维的研究及应用进展

简述了静电纺丝基本原理及纺丝过程中射流存在的几种不稳定性形式;探讨了静电纺丝制备纳米纤维的主要影响因素。回顾了静电纺丝的发展历程,介绍了纳米纤维在电子器件、生物医学领域、滤材、防护服用材料纤维增强复合材料及传感器感知膜等方面的应用。指出静电纺纳米纤维性能优异、应用广泛,应用于生物医学领域是研发热点,必将进一步产业化。     

电纺直写制备聚己内酯支架形貌及精度

作为一种新型的微纳制造技术，熔体直写电纺被广泛用于组织工程支架的可控制备,有序的纤维沉积是该领域应用的前提条件。对于支架成型精度的探究，本文使用生物可降解材料聚己内酯（PCL），采用自行设计的熔体电纺三维可控成型设备进行实验，考察了纤维间距对二维并行纤维沉积形貌及成型精度的影响，以及纺丝电压和网格大小对三维网格结构形貌及精度影响。结果表明，随着并行纤维设定距离的增大，纤维的沉积误差减小，并最终趋于平稳。对于三维网格结构，随电压的增加，最大沉积层数量先增大后减小，当纺丝电压为6kV时达到最大沉积层数15层。成型精度误差先减小后增大，当纺丝电压为7kV时，精度最高误差小于5%。随设定网格边长的增大，沉积层数不断增大。成型精度逐渐提高，当网格边长大于等于1.5mm时，沉积误差趋于稳定，并维持在5%左右。