Effects of polymer concentration and cationic surfactant on the morphology of electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibres

PAN nanofibres were prepared via an electrospinning process. The effect of polymer concentration on the fibre morphology was studied. At a very dilute solution, no fibres were obtained in the electrospinning process. As the concentration increased, the fibre morphology evolved from a beads-on-string structure to a uniform fibre structure with increasing fibre diameters. However, when the same electrospinning process was conducted with the addition of a cationic surfactant, the formation of disconnected beads was prevented, and the number of beads-on-string structures reduced significantly. In addition, the presence of cationic surfactant reduced the average diameter of the electrospun PAN nanofibres.