Abstract

Electrospinning has been recognized as an efficient technique for the fabrication of polymer and composites nanofibers. Various polymers have been successfully electrospun into ultrafine fibers in recent years mostly in solvent solution and some in melt form. Polystyrene (PS) dissolved in N,N-Dimethyl Formamide (DMF) was electrospun to obtain fibers of diameters in the range 600nm. The effects of the concentration, voltage and working distance were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The optimum solution was used to elaborate a composite single walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) / polystyrene. We have reached 2% of CNTs in the polymer matrix when adding oligo-para-methoxy-toluene (OPMT). The diameters decreased when using OPMT and the surface is smoother. The influence of OPMT is noteworthy into diameters nanofibers. Diameters attain 1.5µm in the case of PS/CNTs (1%). However, they get to 500nm in the case of PS/OPMT/CNTs (1%).

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