Synergistic Effect Of Electric Field And Polymer Structures Acting On Fabricating Beads-Free Robust Superhydrophobic Electrospun Fibers

The synergistic effects of electric field and polymer structures were innovatively introduced to achieve uniform, beads-free, and robust superhydrophobic electrospun fibers. Aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) terminated block copolymers of APTES-poly (methyl methacrylate)-b-poly (dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) (APTES-PMMA-b-PDFMA) and APTES-polystyrene-b-PDFMA (APTES PS b PDFMA) were synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and electrospinning in a positive electric field. Uniform, beads-free, and robust superhydrophobic electrospun films were fabricated with APTES-PS-b-PDFMA involving small amount of PDFMA segment. XPS results display that effective surface fluorine enrichment is more easily achieved on APTES-PS-b-PDFMA than on APTES-PMMA-b-PDFMA which involves large amount of DFMA. The mechanism can be summarized as follows: negatively charged block PS in positive electric field migrates towards the core of electrospinning jets, and block PMMA has a better positive charging stability than block DFMA, resulting in preferential surface segregation. This investigation will provide an important instructive value in controllable fabrication of robust superhydrophobic electrospun films applied in the fields of textiles, oil-water separation, membrane distillation, etc.