The Influence of Sheath Solvent’s Flow Rate on the Quality of Electrospun Ethyl Cellulose Nanofibers

The present research investigates the influence of sheath solvent’s flow rate on the quality of electrospun ethyl cellulose (EC) nanofibers using a modified coaxial process. With 24 w/v % EC in ethanol as electrospinnable core fluid and ethanol as sheath fluid, EC nanofibers generated under different sheath flow rates were generated from the modified processes. FESEM observations demonstrate that the modified process is effective in preventing the clogging of spinneret for a smooth electrospinning. The key for the modified coaxial process is the reasonable selection of a sheath flow rate matching the drawing process of core EC fluid during the electrpospinning. The EC nanofibers’ diameters (D, nm) could be manipulated through the sheath-to-core flow rate ratio (f) as D = 819-1651f (R= 0.9754) within a suitable range of 0 to 0.25. The present paper provides useful data for the implementation of the modified coaxial process controllably to obtain polymer nanofibers with high quality.