Synergistic effect of electric field and polymer structures acting on fabricating beads-free robust superhydrophobic electrospun fibers

The synergistic effects of electric field and polymer structures were innovatively introduced to achieve uniform, beads-free, and robust superhydrophobic electrospun fibers. Aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) terminated block copolymers of APTES-poly (methyl methacrylate)- b -poly (dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) (APTES-PMMA- b -PDFMA) and APTES-polystyrene- b -PDFMA (APTES-PS- b -PDFMA) were synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and electrospinning in a positive electric field. Uniform, beads-free, and robust superhydrophobic electrospun films were fabricated with APTES-PS- b -PDFMA involving small amount of PDFMA segment. XPS results display that effective surface fluorine enrichment is more easily achieved on APTES-PS- b -PDFMA than on APTES-PMMA-b-PDFMA which involves large amount of DFMA. The mechanism can be summarized as follows: negatively charged block PS in positive electric field migrates towards the core of electrospinning jets, and block PMMA has a better positive charging stability than block DFMA, resulting in preferential surface segregation . This investigation will provide an important instructive value in controllable fabrication of robust superhydrophobic electrospun films applied in the fields of textiles, oil-water separation, membrane distillation, etc.