The use of digital image analysis and rheological tools to characterize nanofiber based textiles

Abstract

Polyurethane (PU) solved in dimethylformamide (DMF) was electrospun under one set of conditions on two different support textiles. The mechanical properties were measured and aerosol filtration tests were done. The hole size distribution was calculated with a new digital image analysis methodology on SEM images. It has been found that supporting textiles have very high effect on mechanical properties and filtration efficiency of nanofiber mats (even if their fiber diameter distributions were practically identical), which can be explained by different porosity of the prepared samples.