ELECTROSPUN NANOFIBERS FOR OPTICAL APPLICATIONS

The optical applications of electrospun nanofifibers should be separated from the applications of bulk materials or fifilm materials, and lie in the unique optical properties of the nanofifibers. These optical properties can be divided into two aspects: one is light stimulation causing a response in other properties, like conductivity; and the second is other stimulants causing optical property change, like transparency, flfluorescence, different colors, and color change. From the point of view of material fabrication, some factors greatly inflfluence the properties, including well-known factors in the electrospinning process like solution concentration, applied voltage, temperature, moisture, distance between two electrodes, jetting speed, and so on. Further treatment to the materials before or after electrospinning sometimes decides the fifinal properties of the electrospun nanofifibers. Based on this, electrospun nanofifibers for special optical applications can be divided in three types: pristine polymer nanofifibers; doped nanofifibers; and treated nanofifibers. For the fifirst type, the optical properties depend on the pristine properties of the electrospun nanofifibers. For the second type, the optical properties come mainly from the dopants, and the nanofifibers play an important role in offering a one-dimensional (1D) template and confifinement. As for the third type, the spun nanofifibers need to be further treated by pyrolysis, water washing, or sputtering aim to remove organic components or introduce new components into the 1D structure. This chapter discusses electrospun nanofifibers fabricated with these three methods, and the corresponding potential optical applications.

Paper link：https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780323512701/electrospinning-nanofabrication-and-applications