Organic Liquid Impregnation Behavior into Nanofibrous Membranes: Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of Structural Parameters.

This paper reports the effects of structural parameters on organic liquid impregnation behavior into nanofibrous (NF) polymer membranes. The NF membranes were prepared from organic liquidphilic polymers, poly(amide-imide)s (PAIs), by electrospinning. The impregnation velocity of the organic liquid, ethylmethylcarbonate, into the as-spun PAI NF membranes with diameters ranging from 400 to 900 nm was approximately 10-20 times higher than that into commercial cellulose nonwoven membranes. Our theoretical analyses based on the Kozeny-Carman equation and multivariate statistics clearly indicate that in addition to the porosity of the membranes, the variation in fiber diameter as well as the average fiber diameter is a crucial factor for controlling the liquid impregnation behavior.