Formation of uniform PVDF fibers under ultrasound exposure in presence of anionic surfactant

• The electrospinning of PVDF from DMF/acetone with and without anionic fluorosurfactant (FS) was conducted.
• Acetone helps to initiate the electrospinning of PVDF fibers from solution.
• PVDF fibers electrospun without FS are ununiformed and highly beaded.
• The addition of surfactant to spinning solutions reduces the beads number/size by their stretching and elongation.
• Sonication of PVDF/FS solution leads to spinning of homogeneous, thin and beads free fibers.

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was electrospun into fibrous membranes from its solutions in mixture of dimethylformamide (DMF) and acetone with and without an anionic fluorosurfactant. The results indicate that PVDF fibers contain a number of beads at any solvents compositions and solution concentrations. Addition of the surfactant does not affect considerably the morphology of fibers, however it helps to decrease the surface tension of the solution and reduce the beading of fibers. The most important factor affecting the fiber morphology is sonication. Sonication of the spinning solution promotes the formation of perfect, uniform, thin and cylindrical PVDF nanofibers without any beading.