Up‑scaling of polyvinylidene fluoride electrospun nanofibres with a needleless wire spinneret technique

Abstract

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a thermoplastic polymer best known for its extraordinary chemical stability, excellent heat and wear resistant, better mechanical properties, easy processability, resistance to hydrolysis and ultraviolet radiation. Due to its electroactive β-phase content responsible for generating voltage in the presence of an external electric field, PVDF has wide application in energy harvesting, energy storage, sensors and actuators. PVDF can be nanospun into fibres through electrospinning process which further helps in the orientation of dipoles and enhancing its property. In this work, PVDF nanofibres were prepared by using needleless wire spinneret technique. Different types of solution parameters such as solution concentration and electrospinning parameters such as voltage, distance between two electrodes was studied. The optimized concentration obtained from the study is 24%, distance between two electrodes is 130 mm and voltage of positive and negative electrode is +40 kV and -15 kV. XRD analysis is done to determine its phase content and DMA analysis was done to study the mechanical behaviour of the prepared fibres.