TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of initiators on the growth of poly(ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) nanofibers
AU - Mankidy, Pratik J.
AU - Rajagopalan, Ramakrishnan
AU - Foley, Henry C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by National Science Foundation NIRT contract number DMI02-10229. The authors also wish to thank Josh Stapleton of The Pennsylvania State University's Materials Characterization Laboratory for his assistance with the IR work in this study.
PY - 2008/4/29
Y1 - 2008/4/29
N2 - The type of anionic initiator used to polymerize ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate was found to influence the morphology of the polymer formed via vapor phase polymerization. Depending upon the type of initiator, polymerization of ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate resulted in either the formation of neat polymer nanofibers (∼200 nm in diameter) or thin films. Based on the classification of anions using Hard Soft Acid Base principles, we found that harder anions favored polymer film formation while softer ones favored polymer nanofibers. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) were used to characterize the structure, morphology and molecular weight of the synthesized polymers, respectively. Finally, a mechanism of formation of different polymer morphologies is proposed.
AB - The type of anionic initiator used to polymerize ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate was found to influence the morphology of the polymer formed via vapor phase polymerization. Depending upon the type of initiator, polymerization of ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate resulted in either the formation of neat polymer nanofibers (∼200 nm in diameter) or thin films. Based on the classification of anions using Hard Soft Acid Base principles, we found that harder anions favored polymer film formation while softer ones favored polymer nanofibers. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) were used to characterize the structure, morphology and molecular weight of the synthesized polymers, respectively. Finally, a mechanism of formation of different polymer morphologies is proposed.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.polymer.2008.03.018
DO - 10.1016/j.polymer.2008.03.018
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:42049110769
SN - 0032-3861
VL - 49
SP - 2235
EP - 2242
JO - Polymer
JF - Polymer
IS - 9
ER -