Electrospun ceramic fibers: Composition, structure and the fate of precursors

Fibers are electrospun from aluminum acetate/polymer mixtures and characterized by an array of techniques before and after annealing at 1200 °C. We demonstrate that sodium and boron present in the initial starting materials as adducts and stabilizers remain incorporated into the resulting fibers after annealing and pyrolysis of the host polymer. The influence of these minor constituents on the surfaces of the fibers is suggested by infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic data. The presence of these species may impact potential chemical applications of small diameter ceramic fibers, such as their use as catalytic supports or for chemical decomposition.     

松香脂液的超声波清洗

本文介绍在松香加工工艺中，应用超声地脂液进行处理，使时脂液和悬浮在脂液中的细微杂质粒子得以充分洗涤和更快分离，从而达到提高松香质量的目的。     

Temperature-induced changes in morphology and structure of TiO2-Al2O3 fibers

Electrospinning of a sol-gel and polymer mixture is used to produce titania-alumina (TiO₂-Al₂O₃) fibers with diameters ranging from 200 to 800 nm. These composite metal-oxide fibers were calcined at various temperatures and their morphology is studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The decrease in the average diameter of the fibers with increasing temperature is observed. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that up to 800 °C the composite fibers have anatase titania structure whereas at 900 °C the fibers exhibit mixture of anatase and rutile phases. It is found that specific surface area decreases as a function of temperature in the 700-900 °C range. The change in phase (anatase-to-rutile) and the increase in crystallite size occur simultaneously. The presence of smaller amount of amorphous alumina in the primarily titania-based structure seems to play the role in stabilizing the anatase phase.     

Electrospun precursor carbon nanofibers optimization by using response surface methodology

Ultrafine fibers were electrospun from Polyacrylonitrile and N,N-dimethylformamide solution to be used as a precursor for carbon nanofibers. An electrospinning set-up was used to collect fibers with diameter ranging from 104 nm to 434 nm. Morphology of fibers and its distribution were investigated by varying Berry's number, charge density, spinning angle, spinneret diameter and collector area. A more systematic understanding of process parameters was obtained and a quantitative relationship between electrospinning parameters and average fiber diameter was established by using response surface methodology. It was concluded that; Berry's number, charge density and spinneret diameters played an important role to the diameter of nanofibers and its standard deviation. Spinning angle and collector area had no significant impact. Based on response surface methodology the optimum Polyacrylonitrile average fiber diameter of 280 nm and 28 nm standard deviation, were collected at 1.6 kV/cm charge density, 8 Berry's number and 0.9 mm spinneret diameter.     

Gamma ray radiation induced visible light absorption in P-doped silica fibers at low dose levels

A CCD Fiber Optic Spectrometer has been used to monitor the gamma ray radiation induced loss in P-doped fibers at different dopant concentrations (1, 5 and 10 mol%) with a light source (an incandescent bulb with a temperature of 2800–3000 K). The range of dose rates is limited to that used in medical applications (cancer treatments), that is 0.1 to 1.0 Gray per minute (Gy/min). At low integral dose level (<2.0 Gy) four absorption peaks were observed (470, 502, 540 and 600 nm) within the visible region. It has been observed that the radiation induced loss at 470 and 600 nm depends strongly on dose rate. At dose rates of 0.2 and 0.5 Gy/min the induced loss shows nonlinear relation to the total dose. However, at high dose rate (1.0 Gy/min) and low dose rate (0.1 Gy/min) it seems to have a linear dependence with total dose. The conversion from NBOHCs to GeX centers was observed during gamma radiation at low dose rates (0.1–0.5 Gy/min). At the wavelength of 502 and 540 nm, the radiation induced losses show excellent linear relations with total dose (<2.0 Gy) with little dose rate dependence. Experimental results show that the sensitivity (induced loss (dB) per meter fiber per Gy) of 5 mol% P-doped silica fiber is more than 30 times greater than that of a standard multi-mode (MM) communication fiber. The results suggest that P-doped silica fiber is a good candidate as a sensing component in fiber optic dosimetry, especially for radiation therapy applications.     

Electrospun one-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride-coated carbon hybrid nanofibers (GCN/CNFs) for photoelectrochemical applications

Coupling of graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) with electrospun carbon nanofibers (CNFs) enhanced the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of a pristine GCN photoanode. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was electrospun to form fibers that were then carbonized to form one-dimensional (1D) CNFs, which were then used to fabricate the GCN structure. The optimum GCN/CNFs hybrid structure was obtained by controlling the amount of GCN precursors (urea/thiourea). The surface morphology of the hybrid structure revealed the coating of GCN on the CNFs. Additionally, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction confirmed the phases of the GCN/CNFs hybrids. PEC results showed a higher photocurrent of 3 μA for the hybrid compared with that of 1 μA for the pristine GCN. The high photocurrent for the hybrid structures indicated the formation of heterojunctions that resulted from a lower recombination rate of charge carriers. Moreover, UTh_0.075 (0.075 g of urea and 0.075 g of thiourea) hybrid sample showed the highest performance of hydrogen generation with its numerical value of 437 μmol/g, compared to those of UTh_0.1(0.1 g of urea and 0.1 g of thiourea) and UTh_0.05 (0.05 g of urea and 0.05 g of thiourea) composite samples. This higher hydrogen production could be explained again with successful formation of heterojunctions between GCN and CNFs. Overall, we report a new approach for obtaining 1D hybrid structures, having better PEC performance than that of pristine GCN. These hybrids could potentially be used in energy-related devices.     

Stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugating properties of long multimode optical fibers

This paper describes and characterizes a detailed experiment that proves the phase conjugating properties of stimulated Brillouin scattering in multimode fibers (km of length), a problem still in debate in the literature, by studying the random aberrations correction abilities of this nonlinear interaction. Detailed qualitative and quantitative evaluation of aberration correction, by using the M² beam propagation ratio as a criterion to assess beam quality of the beams, proves the phase conjugation via SBS in long MM fibers. A new parameter to characterize the efficiency of the SBS phase conjugation process is proposed and conditions to obtain a complete healing of distortions (complete phase conjugation) are discussed.     

Surface structure and adsorption properties of ultrafine porous carbon fibers

Ultrafine porous carbon fibers (UPCFs) were successfully synthesized by chemical activation of electrospun polyacrylonitrile fibers. In the current approach, potassium hydroxide was adopted as activation reagent. UPCFs were systematically evaluated by scanning electron microscope and nitrogen adsorption. The mass ratio of potassium hydroxide to preoxidized fibers, activation temperature and activation time are crucial for producing high quality UPCFs. The relationships between porous structure and process parameters are explored. UPCFs were applied as adsorbent for nitrogen monoxide to be compared with commercial porous carbon fibers.     

Optimization of microstructured fibers with germanium-doped core for broad normal dispersion range

We have numerically studied different designs of technologically feasible microstructured fibers with a germanium-doped core in order to obtain normal dispersion reaching possibly far in the mid infrared. Hexagonal, Kagome and the combination of both geometries were numerically examined with respect to different constructional parameters like pitch distance, filling factor of air holes, number of layers surrounding the core, and level of germanium doping in the core. Our analysis showed that the broadest range of normal dispersion reaching 2.81?μm, while keeping an effective mode area smaller than 30?μm², was achieved for a hexagonal lattice and a 40?mol% GeO₂ doped core. The proposed fibers designs can be used in generation of a normal dispersion supercontinuum reaching the mid-IR region.     

Preparation and characterization of aligned carbon nanotubes/polylactic acid composite fibers

Aligned functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes/polylactic acid (MWNTs-PCL/PLA) composite fibers were successfully prepared by electrospinning processing. The MWNTs bonded with the polycaprolactone chains exhibited excellent uniform dispersion in PLA solution by comparing with the acid-functionalized MWNTs and amino-functionalized MWNTs. Optical microscopy was used to study the aligned degree of the fibers and to investigate the influences of the electrodes distance on the alignment and structure of the fibers, and results showed that the best quality of aligned fibers with dense structure and high aligned degree were obtained at an electrodes distance of 3 cm. Moreover, the MWNTs embedded inside the MWNTs-PCL/PLA fibers displayed well orientation along the axes of the fibers, which was demonstrated by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy.     

Short electrospun composite nanofibers: Effects of nanoparticle concentration and surface charge on fiber length

Short composite nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning polymer/TiO₂ nanoparticle solutions of 13 wt. % cellulose acetate as a polymer under a voltage of 5.5 kV and at a flow rate of 0.1 μL/min, and the nanoparticles could be added in concentrations as high as 50 wt. %. The length of the short composite nanofibers was significantly decreased from 112 to 70 μm by the addition of at least a 5 wt. % concentration of nanoparticles, and it gradually continued to decrease as the nanoparticle concentration was increased. The length of the short composite nanofibers with a low concentration of nanoparticles was affected by the surface charge of the nanoparticles, and negatively charged nanoparticles readily dispersed to the negatively charged polymers in solution, which resulted in an elongation of the fabricated short composite nanofibers.     

Nanoscale surface of carbon nanotube fibers for medical applications: Structure and chemistry revealed by TOF-SIMS analysis

Surface structure and related chemistry understanding is a vital element in the design of high biocompatible materials since adsorption and adhesion of biological components are involved. These features are even more important in the case of nanostructured materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) fibers. In our preliminary work we synthesised CNTs based fibers for medical applications. This new hybrid system combines polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with CNTs and polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), a biodegradable copolymer. The surface properties of this material are investigated in order to guarantee a biocompatible response. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) was found to be an ideal tool for fiber characterisation owing to its capacity to provide chemical specificity combined with detection limits beyond the reach of techniques previously used. Complementary morphological information is provided by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The corroboration of both data enables us to define the chemistry and structure of this new formulation.     

Formation of uniform PVDF fibers under ultrasound exposure in presence of anionic surfactant

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was electrospun into fibrous membranes from its solutions in mixture of dimethylformamide (DMF) and acetone with and without an anionic fluorosurfactant. The results indicate that PVDF fibers contain a number of beads at any solvents compositions and solution concentrations. Addition of the surfactant does not affect considerably the morphology of fibers, however it helps to decrease the surface tension of the solution and reduce the beading of fibers. The most important factor affecting the fiber morphology is sonication. Sonication of the spinning solution promotes the formation of perfect, uniform, thin and cylindrical PVDF nanofibers without any beading.     

Electrospun nanofibers decorated with bio-sonochemically synthesized gold nanoparticles as an ultrasensitive probe in amalgam-based mercury (II) detection system

In this study, bio-ultrasound-assisted synthesized gold nanoparticles using Gracilaria canaliculata algae have been immobilized on a polymeric support and used as a glassy probe chemosensor for detection and rapid removal of Hg²⁺ ions. The function of the suggested chemosensor has been explained based on gold-amalgam formation and its catalytic role on the reaction of sodium borohydride and rhodamine B (RhB) with fluorescent and colorimetric sensing function. The catalyzed reduction of RhB by the gold amalgam led to a distinguished color change from red and yellow florescence to colorless by converting the amount of Hg²⁺ deposited on Au-NPs. The detection limit of the colorimetric and fluorescence assays for Hg²⁺ was 2.21 nM and 1.10 nM respectively. By exposing the mentioned colorless solution to air for at least 2 h, unexpectedly it was observed that the color and fluorescence of RhB were restored. Have the benefit of the above phenomenon a recyclable and portable glass-based sensor has been provided by immobilizing the Au-NPs and RB on the glass slide using electrospinning. Moreover, the introduced combinatorial membrane has facilitated the detection and removal of Hg²⁺ ions in various Hg (II)-contaminated real water samples with efficiency of up to 99%.     

Magnetic and Microwave Absorbing Properties of Electrospun Ba(1−x)LaxFe12O19 Nanofibers

Ba_(1−x)La_xFe₁₂O₁₉ (0.00≤x≤0.10) nanofibers were fabricated via the electrospinning technique followed by heat treatment at different temperatures for 2 h. Various characterization methods including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and microwave vector network analyzer were employed to investigate the morphologies, crystalline phases, magnetic properties, and complex electromagnetic parameters of nanofibers. The SEM images indicate that samples with various values of x are of a continuous fiber-like morphology with an average diameter of 110±20 nm. The XRD patterns show that the main phase is M-type barium hexaferrite without other impurity phases when calcined at 1100 °C. The VSM results show that coercive force (H_c) decreases first and then increases, while saturation magnetization (M_s) reveals an increase at first and then decreases with La³⁺ ions content increase. Both the magnetic and dielectric losses are significantly enhanced by partial substitution of La³⁺ for Ba²⁺ in the M-type barium hexaferrites. The microwave absorption performance of Ba_0.95La_0.05Fe₁₂O₁₉ nanofibers gets significant improvement: The bandwidth below −10 dB expands from 0 GHz to 12.6 GHz, and the peak value of reflection loss decreases from −9.65 dB to −23.02 dB with the layer thickness of 2.0 mm.     

Electrospinning preparation and photophysical properties of one-dimensional (1D) composite nanofibers doped with erbium(III) complexes

1D composite nanofibers of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP, M_W≈60,000) doped with three Er(III) complexes were prepared by electrospinning. They demonstrated strong near-infrared (NIR) photoluminescence (PL) at 1535 nm and ternary Er(TTA)₃Phen (denoted as Er2, where TTA=2-thenoyltrifluoroacetonate; Phen=1,10-phenanthroline) fibers (Er2/PVP) exhibited maximum PL intensity. The crystal structure of Er2 complex has been determined by X-ray diffraction measurements. Er2 doped in fibers exhibited better thermal stability of NIR PL than the pure Er2 complex. These luminescent composite fibers have potential application in optical amplifiers.     

Photoluminescence study of the surface modified and MEH-PPV coated cotton fibers

In this paper, we report a study on the photoluminescence properties of pure cotton fibers from chemically surface and morphology modified and coated with MEH-PPV polymer samples by dip-coating method. The treated and coated fibers surfaces were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), luminescence and FT-IR spectroscopy. The SEM photos showed that cotton fiber surface was covered by a layer of MEH-PPV with the thickness around 1 μm. The effects on the crystalline structure and photoluminescence (PL) were studied as a function of the alkali modification conditions. It was found that the blue light intensity of the mercerized and bleached specimen is approximately two orders higher than the scoured one. The performance of fibers with MEH-PPV polymer as a coating component was investigated and an excellent white-light emission which consists of blue-, green-, and red-light-emitting bands was demonstrated.     

Interaction between parallel polymer fibers insonificated by ultrasound of low/mild intensity: an analytical theory and experiments

The purpose of this article is to develop a simple mathematical model to address some bioeffects which may be caused by a static attractive force between two long neighboring parallel thin fibers (for example, a pair of collagen bundles of connective tissue) when they are insonificated by a continuous (CW) traveling plane ultrasound (US) under the condition that the fiber length (L)?the distance between them (h) and h?the wavelength of US (λ). The theory predicts that there is an attractive force between these fibers when they are exposed to the CW US with an intensity of a magnitude of 100mW/cm(2). The relationship between the relative approaching velocity of the fibers and the acoustic pressure amplitude can be calculated using the theory. An experiment was performed to verify the theoretical predictions. A plastic test chamber (diameter × height=6mm × 3.5mm) with a cap made of a sound-absorbing material and filled full with distilled water was placed on a microscope stage. A polymer fiber pair of 100μm diameter (d) and 4mm length (L) were immersed in water and aligned parallel in a plane which is normal to the US propagation direction. They floated at the central area of the chamber and h ≤10d. A 25mm diameter, 1MHz quartz crystal was used as an ultrasound source as well as the bottom of the test chamber. The quartz crystal was gold-coated on both sides, but a 5mm diameter center was left transparent (electrode free) to enable optical observation via a microscope. The maximum acoustic intensity, I(max), of the CW wave generated by the source was set at 300mW/cm(2); the corresponding acoustic pressure amplitude was 100kPa. The magnitude of the average approaching velocity of the fiber pair due to the attractive force was found in agreement with that predicted by the theory.     

An investigation into power attenuations in deformed polymer optical fibers under high temperature conditions

This study investigates the effects of temperature and the bend radius on the power loss and average plastic energy density (APED) in SH-4001, MH-4001 and GH-4001 polymer optical fibers (POFs) deformed at temperatures ranging from 25 to 80 °C. The results show that the APED index provides a viable means of predicting the power loss in the three POFs. Based on the experimental data, curve-fitted equations are derived to estimate the power losses in the three POFs under given deformation and temperature conditions. The difference between the estimated results and the experimental results is found to be less than 6%. The experimental results also indicate that, of the three POFs considered in the present study, the GH-4001 fiber has a higher glass transition temperature and has the best power loss resistance, particularly under higher temperature deformation conditions.