Melt-electrospinning of PMMA

The melt electrospinning of PMMA was investigated. The averaged fiber diameter thus obtained was reduced from 34.0 µm to 19.7 µm by adding di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate to reduce viscosity of the molten PMMA, and it further lowered down to 4.0 µm when a KCl/ice-water solution was used as collection media. A comparison study on the PMMA fibers made through melt electrospinning and done by solution electrospinning was made. It was found that solution electrospinning was capable of fabricating very thin fibers as small as to a nanometer size, but resulted in a much wider fiber diameter range than melt-electrospinning did. In general, within some extent an increase in applied voltage and amount of the additive or a decrease in collection distance can give rise to a decreased fiber diameter and improved mechanical performance for the PMMA fibers by melt electrospinning. It was also indicated that the mechanical properties of the PMMA fibers made through melt-electrospinning were superior to those by solution elctropspinning.