Facile synthesis of robust amphiphobic nanofibrous membranes

In this work, we report the facile synthesis of robust amphiphobic nanofibrous membranes via the (fluoroalkyl) silane surface modification of electrospun poly(meta-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) nanofibrous membranes. The fluorinated PMIA nanofibrous membranes showed a nonwettable property for water and oil, exhibiting an amphiphobicity. The results indicated that the FAS molecules were successfully coated on the PMIA electrospun fibers in the form of a monolayer, which did not cause the severe changes of fiber morphology. The electrospun PMIA nanofibrous membranes have a good tensile strength, in particular the aligned PMIA nanofibrous membrane can enable the tensile strength to be increased doubly compared with the randomly oriented PMIA nanofibrous membrane, up to 78.56 +/- 2.06 MPa. The fluorinated PMIA nanofibrous membrane may have a good thermostability due to its inherent properties, exhibiting a potential application in reinforced nanomaterials, automobile air filters, template of structure coatings, etc., requiring high strength and high thermal resistance. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.