Predicting poly(vinyl pyrrolidone)'s solubility parameter and systematic investigation of the parameters of electrospinning with response surface methodology

The solubility parameters were used to choose the solvent for poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) in electrospinning. In this study, a novel method for predicting the contribution value of the pyrrolidone group (a typical part of the PVP molecular structure) was proposed. The solubility parameters of PVP were calculated by this method, and accordingly, ethanol was chosen as the solvent for PVP. What is more, response surface methodology was used to facilitate a systematic investigation on the influence of the PVP solution concentration, feed rate, distance between the tip and collector, and operating voltage on the fiber diameter and morphology in electrospinning. The predicted fiber diameters by the response regression model, and the experimental values were in close proximity. The solution concentration and feed rate both had significant effects on the PVP fiber diameter, and there was some interaction between the solution concentration and the feed rate in this system. In addition, this study provided a train of thought for the electrospinning of polymer fibers with controllable and predictable fiber diameters. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40304.