Polyurethane/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Nanowebs Prepared by an Electrospinning Process

Polyurethane (PU) and PU/multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposite nanofibers, both with diameters of 350 nm, were prepared by an electrospinning process from PU dimethylformamide solutions. The appearance of nanowebs in PU/MWCNT nanofiber structures containing PU fibers with diameters of 20-40 nm was observed. The existence of these structures could have been based on the occurence of strong secondary electric fields, which were created between individual conducting MWCNTs (distributed in the PU/MWCNT nanocomposites), which started to behave as the local moving nanoelectrodes promoting the creation of additional very fine nanowebs during the electrospinning processes. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing nanowebs from synthetic polymers prepared by an electrospinning process. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 111: 2711-2714, 2009