Effect of different salts on electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymer solution

Electrospinning is a relatively simple method to produce submicron fibers from solutions of different polymers and polymer blends. If the solution is absolutely insulating, or the applied voltage is not high enough that electrostatic force cannot overcome the surface tension, then no fiber can be produced by electrospinning; however, if some salt is added in the solution, the problem can be overcome. The effect of different salts on electrospinning of polyacrlonitrile (PAN) polymer solution was investigated in this article. The various inorganic salts used in this work include LiCl, NaNO₃, NaCl, and CaCl₂.The results show that when the salts were added, respectively, into different concentrations of PAN solution, the order of conductant was LiCl > NaNO₃ > CaCl₂ > NaCl > no salt added. Viscosity and shearing strength of electrospinning solutions are slightly affected by the adding of salts and mainly affected by the changes in concentration of PAN electrospinning solutions. The diameter of nanofibers electrospun by solutions with different salts size down as follows: LiCl > NaNO₃ > CaCl₂ > NaCl. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 3865–3870, 2007