Thermally Tunable Surface Wettability of Electrospun Fiber Mats: Polystyrene/Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Blended versus Crosslinked Poly[(N-isopropylacrylamide)-co-(methacrylic acid)]
✍ Scribed by Palanikkumaran Muthiah; Sarah M. Hoppe; Timothy J. Boyle; Wolfgang Sigmund
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 530 KB
- Volume
- 32
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1022-1336
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
This work reports on thermally tunable surface wettability of electrospun fiber mats of: polystyrene (PS)/poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) blended (bl‐PS/PNIPA) and crosslinked poly[(N‐isopropylacrylamide)‐co‐[methacrylic acid)] (PNIPAMAA) (xl‐NIPAMAA). Both the bl‐PS/PNIPA and xl‐PNIPAMAA fiber mats demonstrate reversibly switchable surface wettability, with the bl‐PS/PNIPA fiber mats approaching superhydrophobic ≥150° and superhydrophilic contact angle (CA) values at extreme temperatures. Weight loss studies carried out at 10 °C indicate that the crosslinked PNIPAMAA fiber mats had better structural integrity than the bl‐PS/PNIPA fiber mats. PNIPA surface chemistry and the Cassie–Baxter model were used to explain the mechanism behind the observed extreme wettability.magnified image