Applications of web produced by hot air assisted melt differential electrospinning method

Melt electrospinning, a technique that has gained increasing attention since it easily can generate continuous ultrafine fibers directly from polymer melts without the use of any solvent. Therefore, it is considered as a safe, cost effective, and environmental friendly technique. However, with all those great advantages, the technique still suffers some drawbacks such as: large fiber diameter and low throughput. The hot air assisted melt differential electrospinning (MDES) is a new technique invented by our research team that can solve or eliminate those drawbacks. The most important features of our used apparatus are: Needleless nozzle that could generate multiple Taylor cones around the bottom edge of the nozzle, which can result in a high throughput. The stretching force acting on the jets can be further strengthened by an air current provided by an air pressure gun. Interference between the high voltage supply and temperature sensors could be prevented through the grounding of the nozzle. The ultrafine pp webs produced using the same apparatus was in the micro/nano scale with a diameter of 600nm-6um and a smooth surface. Porosity of the webs ranges from 86.5%-99.4% when different collecting devices are used. The resultant ultrafine webs were applied in three areas: oil sorption, water treatment, and hydrophilic PP membrane. The results were very promising as for oil the sorption capacity was 129.0g/g; for water treatment, the rejection rate for 3um particles was 95%. And for the hydrophilic PP membrane, the water sorption capacity was 12.3 g/g.