Effect of ethanol vapor treatment on properties of electrospun MWNTs/silk fibroin/polyamine 6/66 fibers

Alcohol vapor treatment is a useful way in improving the structure and properties of electrospun nanofibers.Electrospinning was employed to produce MWNTs /silk fibroin /polyamine 6 /66 composite nanofiber mat which was then treated by ethanol vapor.The results indicated that the samples with less mass fraction of MWNTs exhibited swelling and conglutination,and the fiber with greater mass fraction presented only radial expansion.The ethanol vapor treatment evidently improved the degree of crystallinity,thermal stability and mechanical properties of the electrospun nanofiber mats.After alcohol vapor treatment,the degree of crystallinity of the sample increased from 55.8% to 63.9%,and the breaking strength,initial modulus and breaking elongation increased by 45%,103% and 134% respectively when the MWNTs mass fraction was 0.1%.