Electrospinning is a versatile technique to produce fine polymer fibers through electrostatic forces from a large set of polymers. Polyethylene oxide (PEO), with remarkable characteristics such as biocompatibility, stability and inertness, has a long history in electrospinning field as a carrier polymer for non-electrospinnable polymers. PEO is also an excellent candidate for applications in biomedical field, CO2 capture, and energy storage devices. However, this polymer is soluble in water as well as most of the common solvents. When in the form of electrospun membrane, PEO cannot retain the fibrous morphology after contact with its solvents. Moreover, the fibrous morphology is lost also when the membrane is heated above PEO melting temperature. In this regard, chemical crosslinking can be applied to address these stability issues. Among different crosslinking methods, photo-induced crosslinking is remarkably interesting as it is an eco-friendly, fast and precise method characterized by short conversion time, and low energy consumption. In this study, PEO membranes were fabricated through electrospinning and subsequent photo-crosslinking (Figure 1a). Electrospun membranes with different composition ratio of PEO and an acrylic crosslinker (namely polyethylene glycol diacrylate and trimethylol propane triacrylate) were prepared and subjected to the UV-irradiation. The UV dose required for complete crosslinking reaction was optimized by performing photo-DSC and FT-IR. The crosslinking efficiency as well as thermal, mechanical and structural properties of the samples were characterized as a function of crosslinker type and amount. The fibrous membranes exhibited high insoluble fraction and fibrous morphology retention after solvent treatment (Figure 1b). Additionally, the electrospun membrane could endure a large number of thermal cycles above the PEO melting point (Figure 1c). The prepared PEO-based electrospun membranes with high durability and form-stability are thus promising for application in numerous fields such as biomedical fields, water treatment, and particularly in thermal energy storage as a phase change material.

Photo-crosslinked PEO-based electrospun membranes

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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