Abstract

FABRICATION AND INVESTIGATION OF CONTINUOUS ALIGNED CHITOSAN BASED NANOFIBER BY ELECTROSPINNING

K. Sangeetha, K. Rani, Anil Sukumaranand P. N. Sudha*

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to fabricate chitosan based scaffold through electrospinning technique and optimized the parameters to produce continuous aligned polymer fibers. Scaffold of Chitosan/Polyvinyl alcohol/Montmorillonite clay was electrospun under electrical field strength of 22 kV with the flow rate of 0.55ml/hr and the rotation speed of 1400 rpm. The physicochemical properties of the nanofiber were studied using FT-IR and XRD. The FT-IR spectra revealed the effective blending between the individual homopolymers. The reduced crystallinity in the nanofiber was confirmed from the results of XRD. The crystallite size of the nanomat was calculated using Scherrer equation and Williamson-Hall method. The preliminary studies supported nanomat with reduced crystallite size was achieved successfully and it can be a plausible potential candidate for future applications in biomedical and water treatment.

Keywords: Chitosan, Electrospinning, Williamson-Hall method, Scherrer equation, Crystallite size.