Electrospinning fabrication of partially crystalline bisphenol A polycarbonate nanofibers: Effects on conformation, crystallinity, and mechanical properties

The application of an electrostatic and centrifugal field (1,800 rpm) in a novel electrospinning process was shown to improve the degree of uniaxial alignment in polymer nanofibers and to enhance orientational order in polymer chains, producing bisphenol A polycarbonate (BPAPC) nanofibers with superior mechanical properties. The elastic modulus of BPAPC nanofibers with a crystallinity of 6.5% was 7.11 GPa and 5.13 GPa, as measured via atomic force microscopy (AFM) and nanoindenter (NI) experiments, respectively.