Electro-active nanofibres electrospun from blends of poly-vinyl cinnamate and a cholesteric liquid crystalline silicone polymer

Singh, U., Davis, F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0462-872X, Mohan, S. and Mitchell, G. (2013) Electro-active nanofibres electrospun from blends of poly-vinyl cinnamate and a cholesteric liquid crystalline silicone polymer. Journal of Materials Science, 48 (21). pp. 7613-7619. ISSN 0022-2461 doi: 10.1007/s10853-013-7578-0

Abstract/Summary

Electrospinning was used to generate polymer nanofibres from blends of poly-vinyl cinnamate (PVCN) and a cholesteric silicone polymer. Only blends that contained at least 40 % of PVCN produced fibres. Both differential scanning calorimetry and electron dispersion spectroscopy data indicate that the samples are miscible over a wide temperature interval. The variation of fibre diameter with concentration is nonlinear with a well-defined minimum corresponding to an 80 % PVCN blend. The fibres are birefringent with Kerr constants similar to that of cholesteric liquid crystals. Although not significant, the Kerr constant increases with increasing silicone polymer concentration.