Steady state electrospinning of uniform polyethersulfone nanofibers using a non-heated solvent mixture

Electrospinning is the most promising method for the large-scale production of nanofiber membranes. Multi-nozzle systems have already proven to be successful in producing polyamide nanofiber membranes suitable for water filtration. In this contribution, conditions for steady state electrospinning of polyethersulphone were investigated. Steady state electrospinning of PES was only possible for a limited number of electrospinning parameter combinations. Only a polymer concentration of 25 and 26 wt% resulted in defect-free nanofiber membranes. The solvent ratio of DMF:NMP can be varied from 95:5 (v:v%) to 85:15 (v:v%) to generate uniform nanofibers with average diameters varying from 300 to 730 nm all with relatively narrow standard deviation as low as 20 %. These results, thus, allow for a well-chosen set of electrospinning parameters for scaling up electrospinning of polyethersulphone nanofiber membranes.