Shifting of the melting point for semi-crystalline polymer nanofibers

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Published 25 February 2011 Europhysics Letters Association
, , Citation A. Arinstein et al 2011 EPL 93 46001 DOI 10.1209/0295-5075/93/46001

0295-5075/93/4/46001

Abstract

The depression of melting temperature as a function of the diameter of electrospun semi-crystalline polymer nanofibers is discussed. Due to fast solvent evaporation during nanofiber electrospinning, there occurs the fixation of topological structure of the polymer matrix corresponding to chain entanglement of the initial concentration of the semi-dilute solution. The resulting level of chain entanglement is lower than that in polymer bulk at equilibrium. This difference results in an addition to the entropy jump corresponding to the polymer's melting, and accounts for the observed shift in melting temperature in as-spun fibers. The proposed concept is found to be in good agreement with experimental results obtained for as-spun poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (PEVA) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) fibers.

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10.1209/0295-5075/93/46001