Used PET bottles disposal is an unsolved environmental problem, and
there are many efforts for finding an applicable solution for it. Many
researches have showed that the degradation rate of the polymers
increase with the smaller size of fibers. This work was carried out to
convert used PET bottles into nanofibers by melt-electrospinning
method. Uncolored, washed and chipped PET bottles and the PET granule
was used for experiments. The temperature of melted PET at extruder
nozzle and spinning area were set in the range of 245-255 °Cand
200-235 °C respectively. The melting point of the polymer was
determined by DSC. The potential difference was fixed at 25 kV and the
distance between the nozzle and the collector were 3-9 cm. The
morphology and fineness of produced fibers investigated by SEM.
Although the producing fibers were not completely in the rang of
nano-size fibers, but the results have showed that the nanofibers with
diameter between 61- 93 nm can be achieved by the melt-electro spinning
method. Comparing the effects of different flow rates of melting
polymer as well as the distance between the nozzle to the collector
have shown more proportion of finer fibers in flow rate less than 0.1
mL/min and the distance in the range of 3-5 cm. It was concluded
however the melt electrospinning production of nanofibers has some
difficulties but it can be considered as an applicable and
environmental friendly way to recycling the used PET bottles so it can
prevent more pollution of the environment