Research: Processing and Characterization of Polymer Nanofibers

While conventional fiber spinning techniques, e.g., melt spinning, are capable of producing polymer fibers with a wide range of diameters, it has not been possible to spin polymer fibers with diameters in the nanometer range. Recently, it has been shown that the electrospinning process is capable of producing such small diameter fibers. Electrospinning is a unique process that utilizes a high electric field to drive the spinning process. It is a very fast process and has the added advantage that it requires only small polymer quantities. Hence, it can be truly termed a microprocessing technique.

Polymer nanofibers are conjectured to possess unusual structures and morphologies. Hence, there is significant scientific interest in such fibers. In addition, they possess unusual macroscopic properties, e.g., high surface to volume ratio, that render them unique for many different applications ranging from membranes to structural composites. However, before their full potential can be utilized, the scientific basis of this process needs to be established. To date, the understanding of this processing technique has been mostly qualitative. The objective of this research is to develop a quantitative process model and to establish processing-structure-property relationships for polymer nanofibers.

Additional Information

I'm co-advised by Profs. Rutledge (Dept. of Chemical Engineering) and Scott (Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering). I spend most of my time in Chemical Engineering and hence, my nature of my project is somewhat different from the others in the Polymer Processing Research Laboratory.

More information can be found at http://web.mit.edu/shin/www/index.html