Surface hydro-properties of electrospun fiber mats

Hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties (hydro-properties) on material surfaces have been an active research area due to their numerous practical applications. Various fiber mats were prepared to investigate the effect of fiber morphology on the surface properties. Four polymers with intrinsically different hydro-properties are used to fabricate the electrospun fibers with diameter ranging from 0.1 μm to 10 μm by both methods of melt and solution. The pore size, pore size distribution, porosity, and the surface roughness of electrospun fiber mats are evaluated by a Porometry and an image processing technique. The contact angles are measured to characterize the surface properties of fiber mats using the mixture solutions of water and ethanol. As a result, the pore size and surface roughness are closely related to the contact angles. The contact angle is highly increased with the large deviation of fiber diameter and the high surface roughness of fiber mats. It is noted that the designed surface property is achieved by modifying fiber morphology without any complex treatment of material surface.