Novel electrospun luminescent nanofibers from cationic polyfluorene/cellulose acetate blend

This work reports production of nanofibers of cellulose acetate (CA) via electrospinning (ES) technology. Optimal operating conditions to produce nanofibers have been found to involve CA solutions at 20 wt% concentration, flow rate 1.0 mL h−1, a distance between needle tip-collector target of 15 cm and an applied voltage at 20 kV. Under these experimental conditions, nanofibers were produced by ES a solution containing a low concentration of a luminescent fluorene-based cationic conjugated polyelectrolyte. Electronic and optical microscopies were used to characterize their morphology and the diameter of fibers (over 260 nm). Composite fibers with excellent luminescence properties have been obtained and studied in the solid state. Potential applications in a sensing device for nitrobenzene have been tested.