Fabrication and characterization of electrospun polybutadiene fibers crosslinked by UV irradiation

Crosslinked electrospun polybutadiene (BR) fibers were made using electrospinning and UV curing methods. The crosslinked BR fibers were obtained by irradiating UV light on the electrospun BR fibers containing a photoinitiator and a crosslinker. Although uncrosslinked electrospun BR fibers did not retain the fiber morphology at room temperature due to a cold flow resulting from the very low glass transition temperature (T-g) of BR (below -80 degrees C), the crosslinked electrospun BR fibers retained the fiber mor-phology. The crosslink density increased with increase of the content of crosslinking agent. The crosslinked BR fibers had higher T-g than the raw BR. Tensile strength, modulus, and elongation at break of the electrospun BR fiber mats increased with increase of the crosslinker content. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.