TUNING SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF ELECTROSPUN POLY CAPROLACTONE FIBRES BY SINGLE SOLVENT ELECTROSPINNING SYSTEM

Secondary surface texture or surface roughness is having a powerful impact on morphological variety and magnifies the application areas of electrospun fibres. This paper for the first time assesses the formation of varying degrees of surface pores on electrospun poly caprolactone (PCL) fibres by using a single solvent system. PCL solutions were prepared by dissolving PCL granules in dichloromethane (DCM) at the concentration of 5, 10, 15 and 20% (w/v), before being subjected to the electrospinning process at lower kV values of 5, 10 and 15, respectively. The morphology of electrospun fibres was characterised by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The resultant PCL fibres showed a highly porous surface was formed at lower PCL concentration. The surface roughness of PCL fibres was increased gradually with the increment of PCL concentration. The formation of porous surface was mainly due to the fast phase separation process while pore size and pore size distribution was found to depend on the blend composition.