Electrospun nanofiber belts made from high performance copolyimide

Electrospun nanofibers based on copolyimides were made, aiming at finding a promising method for improving the mechanical properties of electrospun polyimide nanofibers. The copolyimide had a backbone consisting of 3,3',4,4'-biphenyl-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BPDA), biphenylamide (BPA) and 4,4'-oxydianiline (ODA) residues. The structure and composition of the copolyimide was controlled by the ratio of rigid BPA and flexible ODA moieties. The electrospun copolyimide nanofibers were collected in the form of a belt using a rotating disc with a rim of 8 mm width. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, x-ray scattering and tensile testing, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize the nanofiber belts. The nanofibers had a diameter range from 80 to 300 nm and were well aligned in the belts. The thermal stability of the nanofiber belts was over 460 °C. The tensile test showed that the copolyimide nanofiber belts had much better mechanical properties than either of the flexible and rigid homo-polyimide (homo-PI) nanofiber belts. The tensile strength, modulus and elongation to break of the copolyimide nanofiber belt with BPA/ODA ratio of 40/60 are respectively 1.1 ± 0.1 GPa, 6.2 ± 0.7 GPa and 20.8 ± 1.2%, compared to 459 ± 36 MPa, 2.1 ± 0.3 GPa and 41.3 ± 2.2% for BPDA/ODA homo-PI as well as 384 ± 18 MPa, 11.5 ± 0.6 GPa and 3.9 ± 0.1% for BPDA/BPA homo-PI. The important feature is that the electrospun polymer nanofibers can be made very strong by using copolyimides as spinning materials.