Fabrication and Thermal Insulation Properties of Bamboo‐Shaped Polymer Fibers by Selective Solvent Vapor Annealing

• Published in: Macromolecular rapid communications. 2018-12, Vol.39 (23), p.e1800424-n/a
• Main Authors: Chiu, Yu‐Jing, Chiu, Han‐Lun, Tseng, Hsiao‐Fan, Wu, Bo‐Hao, Li, Jia‐Wei, Lu, Tien‐Chang, Chen, Jiun‐Tai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetates - chemistry; Annealing; Bamboo; bamboo‐shaped structures; core‐shell fibers; Cyclohexane; Domains; Electrospinning; Fabrication; Fibers; Molecular Structure; Particle Size; Phase separation; Polymers; Polymethyl methacrylate; Polymethyl Methacrylate - chemistry; Polymethylmethacrylate; Polystyrene; Polystyrene resins; Polystyrenes - chemistry; Properties (attributes); solvent vapor annealing; Solvents; Solvents - chemistry; Surface Properties; Temperature; Thermal insulation; thermal properties; Vapors
• ISSN: 1022-1336; 1521-3927
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.201800424

Fibrillar materials have gained much attention recently because of their unique properties and potential applications. Although many methods have been developed to fabricate materials, it remains challenging to prepare fibrillar materials containing multicomponent materials or even with complex structures. Here, a facile strategy is developed to fabricate bamboo‐shaped fibers by treating electrospun polymer core‐shell fibers with solvent vapor annealing. Electrospun polystyrene (PS)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) core‐shell fibers are first prepared by electrospinning PS/PMMA blend solutions via a phase separation process. When the PS/PMMA core‐shell fibers are annealed with the vapor of cyclohexane, which swells and delocalizes the PS domains selectively, the fibers transform into bamboo‐shaped structures. The bamboo‐shaped structures can be further examined by swelling and delocalizing the PMMA domains selectively, revealing the undulated PS structures. The thermal insulation properties of the fibers with bamboo‐shaped structures are observed to be enhanced compared with the original polymer core‐shell fibers. Fibrillar materials are fabricated by annealing electrospun core‐shell polymer fibers with selective solvents. The polystyrene (PS) domains are selectively swollen and delocalized, and the fibers transform into bamboo‐shaped structures. With bamboo‐shaped structures, the thermal insulation properties of the fibers are observed to be enhanced compared with the original polymer core‐shell fibers.