Effect of Topology on the Adhesive Forces between Electrospun Polymer Fibers Studied using a T-peel Test

FLORENCIA MONTINI BALLARIN; TODD A. BLACKLEDGE ; NICOLE L. CAPITOS DAVIS ; PATRICIA M. FRONTINI ; GUSTAVO A. ABRAHAM ; SHING-CHUNG WONG

POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2012

0032-3888

Electrospinning technique provides an effective methodology to obtain high aspect ratio polymer fibers for biomimetic applications. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of topology on adhesion between aligned fibers. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is electrospun using two different setups: (i) a tip collector and (ii) a flat collector. The tip collector enables the fibers to self-align. When a fiber reaches the tip collector, the next fiber is repelled by the charge they carry, forcing the fibers to deposit in a parallel arrangement. The flat collector allows the fibers to deposit at random. The adhesion between the fiber mats is measured using a T-peel test. Adhesion strength (758.7 ± 211.7 kPa) changes marginally with the peeling rate and applied pressure on the membranes. Aligned fibers exhibit higher adhesion strength between the membranes in comparison to randomly oriented nonwovens (613.1 ± 79.9 kPa). The estimated Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) contact energy (83.1 ± 32.5 mJ/m2) is consistent with the range of van der Waals (vdW) adhesion forces. This work shows how the adhesion between two polymer membranes can be modulated by surface topology.