Electrospinning Report

Abstract

Electrospinning is a versatile method to prepare nanofibers from the polymeric solution. Homo and copolymers of monomers, N-(2-Hydoxyethyl) Phthalimide (NHEP) and 4-Chloro-3-methylphenyl methacrylate (CMPMA) in N,N- dimethyl formamide (DMF) at 700C using 2,2-azo-bisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator were prepared. Nanofibers of poly(NPEMA-co.-CMPMA) in 20% w/v DMF solution were obtained by electrospinning .IR data were primarily employed to characterize polymers and formation of nano fibers was identified by SEM study. TGA data were obtained to study the effect of surface area on thermal stability of the copolymers and their nano fibers. Metal ion uptake capacity of copolymers and their nanofibers was explored by batch equilibrium

The feed composition of monomers is given in Table 1. Appropriate quantities of monomers, DMF and AIBN (0.5 % w/w based on total monomers 1 and 2) were added to a flask fitted with reflux condenser. The reaction mixture was heated at 70° C for 5 h with stirring, then cooled to room temperature and the resulting polymer solution was slowly poured in a large volume of methanol with stirring when the polymer precipitated out. It was filtered and washed with methanol. Solid polymers were purified by repeated precipitation from DMF solution using

Aqueous nitrate solutions of four metal ions viz. Cu+2, Ni+2, Zn+2 and Pb+2 were employed in this investigation [14].

2.5 Antimicrobial screening

The homopolymers and copolymers of NPEMA/CMPMA were tested against different microorganisms which are commonly employed for biodegradability tests such as bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus citreus), fungi (Aspergillusniger, Sporotichumpulverulentumand Trichodermalignorum) and yeast (Candida utilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiaeand Pichiastipitis). The antimicrobial screening of nanofibers were done against only Bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli). Known protocol [15] of antimicrobial screening by quantitative method was followed. 3. Results and discussion

3.1 FTIR spectrum of