The behavior of responsive fluids, such as liquid crystals and shear thickening fluids, has been predicted to be significantly enhanced by confinement.  Coaxial electrospinning is a facile and relatively simple method to create polymeric nanofibers with core-shell morphology, in which the core can be composed of responsive liquids.  The polymeric sheath provides confinement to the responsive liquid in nano-sized cavities, the diameters of which were controlled through tuning electrospinning parameters.  Furthermore, the effect of polymer-liquid interface was explored by systematic modulation of the polymer composition across a range of polar, non-polar, and functionalized surfaces.  Initial progress towards uniform and aligned fibers characterized by optical microscopy, SEM, TEM, XRD, and initial dynamic testing is presented.  The properties of coaxial fibers were compared to bulk properties to identify the roles of confinement and polymer interactions in efforts to develop a theoretical model.

Encapsulation of responsive liquids in coaxial nanofibers via electrospinning

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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