Fabrication of well-aligned electrospun nanofibrous membrane based on fluorinated polyimide

We have fabricated novel nanofibrous fluorinated polyimide membranes on a specially designed collector, which is composed of conductive aluminum plates and glass insulator materials and can be removed from the apparatus, using an electrospinning method. We describe the structure and water flux properties of the nanofibrous fluorinated polyimide membranes. The electrospun nanofibers were deposited across the plates and uniaxially aligned to the collector. In addition, the multi-layer stacked nanofibrous membranes, consisting of three-dimensionally ordered nanopores, were produced. The pure water fluxes for the stacked membranes were measured, using a stirred dead-end filtration cell, and were linearly decreased with an increasing deposition time, indicating that the nanopores formed in the nanofibrous membrane were further narrowed due to the regularly accumulated nanofibers. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.