Electrospinning is a versatile and viable technique for generating ultrathin fibers. Remarkable progress has been made with regard to the development of electrospinning methods and engineering of electrospun nanofibers to suit or enable various applications. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of electrospinning, including the principle, methods, materials, and applications. We begin with a brief introduction to the early history of electrospinning, followed by discussion of its principle and typical apparatus. We then discuss its renaissance over the past two decades as a powerful technology for the production of nanofibers with diversified compositions, structures, and properties. Afterward, we discuss the applications of electrospun nanofibers, including their use as "smart" mats, filtration membranes, catalytic supports, energy harvesting/conversion/storage components, and photonic and electronic devices, as well as biomedical scaffolds. We highlight the most relevant and recent advances related to the applications of electrospun nanofibers by focusing on the most representative examples. We also offer perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and new directions for future development. At the end, we discuss approaches to the scale-up production of electrospun nanofibers and briefly discuss various types of commercial products based on electrospun nanofibers that have found widespread use in our everyday life.

Electrospinning and Electrospun Nanofibers: Methods, Materials, and Applications

Review of thermal conductivity in composites: Mechanisms, parameters and theory

PLA composites: From production to properties

Evolution of the bioplastics industry has changed directions dramatically since the early 1990s. The latest generation is moving toward durable bioplastics having high biobased content. The main objective is to replace “fossil carbon” with “renewable carbon”, a holistic strategy to mitigate climate change by minimizing the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Durable bioplastics is desired for multiuse long-term application in automotive, electronics and other industries. One necessary requirement for them is to be both tough and strong, yet the two attributes are often mutually exclusive. Does this mean a biobased and biodegradable polymer as polylactic acid (PLA) with its high strength but low toughness cannot be adopted for durable applications? Well, not exactly; this is where the concept of tailoring the properties of PLA to achieve stiffness–toughness balance along with acceptable heat resistance comes into play. In this perspective, we summarize the recent research progress ...

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b00321

Perspective on Polylactic Acid (PLA) based Sustainable Materials for Durable Applications: Focus on Toughness and Heat Resistance

Microcrystalline cellulose: Isolation, characterization and bio-composites application-A review.

A bio-based epoxy monomer (GA-II) was synthesized from renewable gallic acid. The aromatic group contained made it capable of being absorbed onto the surface of graphene via strong π–π interactions, which was proven by Raman spectra and UV spectra. The GA-II anchored graphene was easily homogeneously dispersed in the epoxy resin. After solidification, the graphene/epoxy composites demonstrated superior performances in terms of good mechanical properties, excellent thermal conductivity, as well as high electrical conductivity. With the addition of only 2 wt% GA-II/graphene, the tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength and flexural modulus of the composites were improved by 27%, 47%, 9% and 21%, respectively. The thermal and electrical conductivities were also improved by 12-fold (from 0.15 to 1.8 W m−1 K−1) and 8 orders (from 7.0 × 10−15 to 3.28 × 10−5 s cm−1), respectively. This work provided us with an environmentally friendly agent with high efficiency for graphene dispersion and demonstrated an efficient method for fabricating epoxy/graphene composites with superior properties.

How a bio-based epoxy monomer enhanced the properties of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA)/graphene composites

Improving the phase separation and stability of the hard segment domains at the same time is the novel method reported here to improve the recovery of thermoplastic shape memory polyurethanes (SMPUs) at high strain (>1000%). The shape recovery of the corresponding SMPUs with a more than 1000% strain can reach about 96% at room temperature in 3 min, the recoverable strain (emax − epermanent) is more than 960%, which is nearly 2.5 times that of the best value (400%) previously reported.

Highly recoverable rosin-based shape memory polyurethanes

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) was electrospun into ultrafine fibrous membranes from its solutions in a mixture of N,N-dimethylformamide and acetone (9:1, v/v). The electrospun membranes were subsequently treated by continuous hot-press at elevated temperatures up to 155°C. Changes of morphology, crystallinity, porosity, liquid absorption, and mechanical properties of the membranes after hot-press were investigated. Results of scanning electron microscopy showed that there were no significant changes in fibrous membrane morphology when the hot-press temperature varied from room temperature to 130°C, but larger pores were formed because of fibers melting and bonding under higher temperatures. Analyses of X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimeter exhibited that the crystalline form of PVDF could transfer from β-type to α-type during hot-press at temperatures higher than 65°C. Tensile tests suggested that the mechanical properties of the electrospun PVDF membranes were remarkably enhanced from 25 to 130°C, whereas the porosity and the liquid absorption decreased. The hot-press at 130°C was optimal for the electrospun PVDF membranes. The continuous hot-press post-treatment could be a feasible method to produce electrospun membranes, not limited to PVDF, with suitable mechanical properties as well as good porosity and liquid absorption for their applications in high-quality filtrations or battery separators. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers

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Papers

How a bio-based epoxy monomer enhanced the properties of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA)/graphene composites

Highly recoverable rosin-based shape memory polyurethanes

Effect of hot-press on electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) membranes

How does epoxidized soybean oil improve the toughness of microcrystalline cellulose filled polylactide acid composites

Surface hydrophobic modification of starch with bio-based epoxy resins to fabricate high-performance polylactide composite materials