Electrospuns including clay and ordered mesoporous silica materials

This study has been conducted to produce nanofibers charged with synthetic clays (montmorillonite and laponite) or ordered mesoporous silica by electrospinning process. The first challenge of this project was to analyse and optimize the dispersion of these particles into the olyacrylonitrile(PAN)/Dimethylformamide(DMF)solution. Solutions have been prepared with special mechanical treatment to make them homogeneously dispersed before the electrospinning process. Morphology and homogeneity have been checked by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It has been observed that the mechanical treatment changes the dispersion of the fillers inside the nanofibers. The key parameters controlling the dispersion and the spinning have been determined and optimized. The diameters have been measured by using Image J software. Influence of spinning parameters has been investigated to compare the nanocomposites homogeneity in terms of fibers diameter and particles dispersion