Investigating the Mechanical Properties of Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofibers Based on Aligned and Random Orientations

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), as an important polymeric material, has various applications in industry and medicine. The present study investigated these nanofibers' mechanical properties, including modulus of elasticity (MOE), the adhesion between them and the atomic force microscope probe. The study used an electrospinning system to synthesize PVA nanofibers with different concentrations as well as aligned and random scaffold assemblies. The effect of different concentrations and nanofiber scaffold assemblies on the MOE and adhesion was investigated for the extension and retraction strokes in JPK SPM. The results showed that increasing the PVA concentration increased the MOE but decreased adhesion. Considering the random format of PVA nanofiber scaffolds, the increasing MOE rate and decreasing adhesion rate due to increasing PVA concentration are, respectively, 0.097Mpa (PVAConcentration %)(-1) and 1.868 Nn (PVAConcentration %)(-1) for extension stroke and for retraction stroke are 0.255Mpa (PVAConcentration %)(-1) and 4.75 Nn (PVAConcentration %)(-1). Moreover, using the aligned nanofiber format reduced the MOE, and the adhesion was greater for the retraction strokes than extension strokes, while the situation was reversed for the MOE. Finally, in nanofibers with random format scaffolds, increasing the PVA concentration increased the diameter of the nanofibers. The increasing rate of average nanofiber diameters by increasing PVA concentration is 89.424 nm (PVAConcentration %)(-1) for random and aligned scaffolds.