Electrospinning of a natural biopolymer, gelatin, was investigated in this paper. Although this biopolymer canbe well dissolved in water, the resulting solution isrecognized unspinnable through an electrospinningtechnique. A different organic solvent, 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol(TFE), has been found to be suitable.
At the ambient condition, the gelatin/TFE solution with a mass concentration less than 5% or greater than 12.5% was difficult to electrospin into nanofibers.
Mechanical characterization indicates that both the fiber diameter and the beads on the fiber surface can influence the mechanical performance of the electrospun nanofiber membranes.
The finest fiber mat generally exhibits higher tensile modulus and ultimate tensile strength.
However, if there are beads on the fiber surface, the situation may be different.
The nanofiber mat with the smallest fiber diameter but having beads on the fiber surface even exhibited poorer mechanical performance than that having the largest fiber diameter but without any beads.