The effect of material and process parameters on the surface energy of polycaprolactone fibre layers

The experiment involved the study of differences between the surface energy of various fibrous layers. The experimental approach was based on changes in several parameters such as the concentration of the polymeric solution, differences in the molecular weight, the use of different solvents and the method applied for the preparation of the samples. All the experiments considered nanofibrous materials based on polycaprolactone that had been electrospun using the direct and alternating current electrospinning approaches. In addition, polymer foils from the spinning solutions were prepared as reference materials. The contact angle and surface energy were measured for all the prepared materials (foils and layers). The experiment led to the conclusion that the use of different solvent systems and the two electrospinning approaches produces materials with differing surface energies and, thus, with differing degrees of hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the produced fibre layers.