Effect of polymer concentration on electrospinning of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrins/PEO nanofibres

Electrospinning is a versatile method for making nanofibres from polymer solution. Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) is electrospun from aqueous solution by blending with non-toxic, biocompatible, synthetic polymer poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). The aqueous solutions containing 70:30 HP-β-CD/PEO polymer blend with 8 wt.% concentration was electrospun to study the effects of process parameters on fibre morphology. Electrospinning was carried out at variable feed rate, applied voltage and working distance to see the effect on process stability and fibre diameter. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images revealed that increasing feed rate, applied voltage and working distance promote bead formation in the fibre. The average diameter of the nanofibres was measured by using ImageJ software. The ultimate objective of this research is to optimize the electrospinning parameters to obtain bead-free HP-β-CD/PEO nanofibres. It is found that the fibre diameter increases with increasing feed rate and applied voltage. In contrast, the diameter of the fibres decreases with increasing working distance to a certain level. Further increases of working distance produces beads in the fibres. A feed rate of 0.5-1.0 ml/h, a working distance of 10-14cm and an applied voltage of 5-7kV have been found to produce smooth HP-β-CD/PEO nanofibres.