316b Transport Properties of Electrospun Nanowebs

Gerardo Callegari, K G Kornev, and Alexander V. Neimark. TRI/Princeton, 601 Prospect Avenue, P.O.Box 625, Princeton, NJ 08542

Electrospun nanowebs found multiple new applications during the last 5 years as. biomaterials for tissue engineering and scaffolds, intelligent textiles as well as other more traditional applications as catalytic beds and filters. For most of those applications, the nanoweb is usually a nonwoven with fiber diameter hundred of times thinner than normal textiles and exposed or in contact with liquids. It is though, of high interest to measure fluid transport properties of electrospun nanowebs.

The focus of this paper is to characterize liquid transport properties of electrospun nanowebs prepared from hydrolyzed cellulose acetate (HCA) and to relate them to the geometrical-structural properties of the material. Also provide a means to check the pore uniformity using the combination of wicking and permeability measurements.