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US 2010/0247908 A1Published application
Nanospinning of polymer fibers from sheared solutions
AssigneeNorth Carolina State University
InventorsOrlin D. Velev, Stoyan Smoukov, Manuel Marquez
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Nanofibers are fabricated by introducing a polymer solution into a dispersion medium and shearing the dispersion medium. Droplets of the polymer solution are spun into elongated fibers that are insoluble in the dispersion medium.
Claims31
A method for fabricating polymer nanofibers, the method comprising:
- introducing a polymer solution into a dispersion medium to form a dispersion, wherein the polymer solution comprises a polymer dissolved in a polymer solvent, the dispersion medium comprises an anti-solvent for the polymer such that the polymer solvent is miscible with the anti-solvent, and the dispersion comprises a plurality of polymer solution-inclusive droplets dispersed in the dispersion medium;
- and
- shearing the dispersion medium, wherein the droplets elongate and stiffen as the polymer solvent diffuses out from the droplets into the dispersion medium, to form a plurality of polymer nanofibers insoluble in the dispersion medium.
A method for fabricating polymer strands, the method comprising introducing a polymer solution into a dispersion medium and shearing the dispersion medium to form polymer strands having an aspect ratio of about 100 or less.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.