Nanofibers with diameter below one nanometer from electrospinning |
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| Authors: | Shaoju Jian Jia Zhu Shaohua Jiang Shuiliang Chen Hong Fang Yonghai Song Gaigai Duan Yongfan Zhang Haoqing Hou |
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| Institution: | Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022 China ; College of Ecology and Resources Engineering, Wuyi University, Wuyishan 354300 China ; College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037 China.; College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037 China ; Department of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108 China |
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| Abstract: | Sub-nanometer materials have received wide attention due to their unique properties in recent years. Most studies focus on the preparation and properties investigation of the inorganic sub-nanometer materials, while there are few reports on organic especially polymeric sub-nanometer materials such as sub-nanometer fiber due to the obstacles with respect to fabricating such small nanofibers. In this work we prepare PAA nanofibers with diameters ranging from hundreds of nanometers down to sub-nanometer via electrospinning from a polyamic acid (PAA) with ultrahigh molecular weight. The morphologies and size of the electrospun ultrathin nanofibers are characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM images combined with theoretic calculations show that sub-nanometer fiber of approximate 0.17–0.63 nm only containing one molecular chain was generated via electrospinning from ultra-dilute PAA solutions for the first time. These quite small sub-nanometer fibers would open a new area of electrospinning and provide further explorations on the production and application of electrospun sub-nanometer fibers with single molecular chains.Super-fine nanofibers with diameter below 1 nanometer are prepared by electrospinning from ultra-dilute solutions. |
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