Mechanical properties and chemical resistance of electrospun polyterafluoroethylene fibres

Abstract

Porous fibrous polyterafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes are widely used as high-temperature filters. However, high quality PTFE membranes with excellent mechanical properties and chemical resistance by electrospinning are still required. In this work, pure PTFE fibrous membranes were prepared by electrospinning PTFE emulsion with addition of a very small amount of polyethylene oxide (PEO) followed by a sintering process. The characterization of SEM and TEM indicated that after sintering, the PTFE particles in the fibres melted together and formed smooth fibres with uniform density. Tensile test showed that the membranes sintered at 380 °C possessed the best mechanical properties, much better than those electrospun from a blend of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and PTFE emulsion in previous reports. Chemical resistance test indicated that the PTFE membrane had excellent chemical resistance even on immersing in strong base and strong acid at 100 °C for 12 h. These electrospun fibrous PTFE membranes could be promising candidates as high-temperature and chemical resistance filters.