Cuahuizo-Huitzil G, Olivares-Xometl O, Arellanes-Lozada P, Laguna Cortés JO, Arriola Morales J, Santacruz-Vázquez C, Santacruz-Vázquez V. Estimation of Digital Porosity of Electrospun Veils by Image Analysis.
Polymers (Basel) 2024;
16:300. [PMID:
38276707 PMCID:
PMC10820155 DOI:
10.3390/polym16020300]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
The present work reports on an empirical mathematical expression for predicting the digital porosity (DP) of electrospun nanofiber veils, employing emulsions of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH) and olive and orange oils. The electrospun nanofibers were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), observing orientation and digital porosity (DP) in the electrospun veils. To determine the DP of the veils, the SEM micrographs were transformed into a binary system, and then the threshold was established, and the nanofiber solid surfaces were emphasized. The relationship between the experimental results and those obtained with the empirical mathematical expression displayed a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.97 by employing threshold II. The mathematical expression took into account experimental variables such as the nanofiber humidity and emulsion conductivity prior to electrospinning, in addition to the corresponding operation conditions. The results produced with the proposed expression showed that the prediction of the DP of the electrospun veils was feasible with the considered thresholds.
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