Filler Surface Nature, Bead, Solution Viscosity and Fibre Diameter of Electrospun Particle-Reinforced Polylactide

The effect of viscosity of agro particle reinforced polylactide (PLA) solution on the electrospun fibre diameter and bead size produced is examined. Solutions of agro waste particle reinforced PLA were made at varying filler weight fraction and these electrospun into fibres. A scanning electron microscope was used to examine the morphologies of fibres while the fibre diameters were determined using ImageJ software. Results show that solution viscosity does not affect fibre diameter when agro particle fillers are processed by a combination of mechanical, thermal and chemical treatments prior to been used as reinforcement. At lower concentration of reinforcement, beads generated from treated particles were of smaller diameter. High solution viscosity gave rise to large bead diameters for treated and untreated reinforcements. Thus, the effect of solution viscosity on fibre and bead diameters depends largely on surface nature of the agro filler.