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Electrospinning and post-drawn processing effects on the molecular organization and mechanical properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers

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Abstract

This paper reports the molecular organization and mechanical properties of electrospun, post-drawn polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. Without post-drawing, the polymer chain was kinked and oriented in hexagonal crystalline structures. Immediate post-drawing in the semi-solid state disrupted the crystal structures and chain kink at maximum draw ratio. Structural re-orientation at maximum draw resulted in a 500% increase in Young’s modulus and a 100% increase in ultimate tensile strength. By applying post-drawing to electrospinning it may be possible to obtain PAN fibers and PAN-derived carbon fibers with enhanced mechanical properties compared to available fabrication technologies.

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Acknowledgment

This work was made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF1561966 & NSF1653329) and the United States Army Research Laboratory (W911NF-17-2-0227)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA

    David A. Brennan, Khosro Shirvani & Vince Z. Beachley

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA

    Cailyn D. Rhoads

  3. Department of Physics, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Rd, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA

    Samuel E. Lofland

Authors
  1. David A. Brennan
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  2. Khosro Shirvani
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  3. Cailyn D. Rhoads
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  4. Samuel E. Lofland
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  5. Vince Z. Beachley
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vince Z. Beachley.

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Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.67

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Brennan, D.A., Shirvani, K., Rhoads, C.D. et al. Electrospinning and post-drawn processing effects on the molecular organization and mechanical properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. MRS Communications 9, 764–772 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.67

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