Production of ultra high molecular weight poly-ethylene / butyl rubber fibers via electrospinning

Abstract

This research covers the electrospinning of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) mixed with Butyl Rubber polymers. The optimum process parameters to electrospin the blend of these polymers in certain ratios have been found out and the SEM images of the resultant fibers were taken to comprehend the morphology. The polymers mixed in different ratios were subjected to electrospinning under controlled parameters and the effect of these parameters on the morphology was studied. The experiments were performed in a manner that only one instance of the parameters was altered each time, to see the influence of it on characterization of the fibers. The fibers obtained were of microfibers, instead of nanofibers, due to the fact that the fiber diameter must stay lower than 100 nanometers (0.1 micrometer) and the finest resultant fibers had an average diameter of 2.20 ± 0.50 μm. Average fiber diameters have been measured by 10 arbitrary diameters and were denoted with a deviation.