The Enhanced Encapsulation Capacity of Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane-based Copolymers for the Fabrication of Electrospun Core/Shell Fibers.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Bauer, Adam J. P.; Zeng, Tingying; Liu, Jianzhao; Uthaisar, Chananate; Li, Bingbing
- Source
- Macromolecular Rapid Communications. Apr2014, Vol. 35 Issue 7, p715-720. 6p.
- Subject
- *OLIGOMERS
*ENCAPSULATION (Catalysis)
*SILICONES
*COPOLYMERS
*FABRICATION (Manufacturing)
*ELECTROSPINNING
*EMULSIONS
- Language
- ISSN
- 1022-1336
This paper reports the use of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-based copolymers to stabilize the core/shell interface for the facile fabrication of electrospun core/shell fibers. For the poly[(propylmethacryl-heptaisobutyl-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane)- co-(methyl methacrylate)] (POSS-MMA)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) system, the bicontinuity of hybrid core/shell fibers can be tuned by controlling the phase separation of POSS-MMA/PCL in electrospinning solutions and therefore the size of PCL-in-POSS-MMA emulsion droplets. Our results demonstrate the enhanced encapsulation capacity of POSS-MMA copolymers as shell materials. Taking advantage of the rapid advancement of POSS-based copolymer synthesis, this study can potentially be generalized to guide the fabrication of various other POSS-based core/shell nano-/microstructures by using single-nozzle electrospinning or coaxial electrospinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]