Electrospinning is a technique, which can be used to produce nanofibrous materials by introducing electrostatic fields into the polymer solution. Due to their intrinsic properties, such as small fiber diameter, small pore size and large surface area, nanofibres are suitable for use in a variety of applications including wound dressing, filtration, composites and tissue engineering. The study demonstrates the successful and optimised production of Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and chitosan nanofibres by electrospinning. The biocidal effects of chitosan, chitosan-silver nanofibres and silver nanoparticles were successfully investigated. To set up a functional electrospinning apparatus, the PEO solution parameters (concentration, molecular weight, solvent, and addition of polyelectrolyte) and applied potential voltage on the structural morphology and diameter of PEO nanofibres were studied. At lower PEO concentrations, the fibres had morphology with a large variation in fibre diameter, whereas at the higher concentrations, the nanofibres exhibited ordinary morphology with uniform but larger fibre diameters. Higher molecular weight showed larger average diameters when compared to that obtained with the same polymer but of a lower molecular weight. The addition of polyelectrolyte to the polymer solution had an influence on the structural morphology of the PEO. Flow simulation studies of an electrically charged polymer solution showed that an increase in the flow rate was associated with an increase in poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) concentration for the low molecular weight polymer, the shape and size of the Taylor cone increasing with an increase in PAH concentration for the low molecular weight polymer. During optimization of the PEO nanofibres, based on statistical modelling and using the Box and Behnken factorial design, the interaction effect between PAH concentration and the tip-to-collector distance played the most significant role in obtaining uniform diameter of nanofibres, followed by the interaction between the tip-to-collector distance and the applied voltage and lastly by the applied voltage. The production and optimization of chitosan nanofibres indicated that the interactions between electric field strength and the ratio of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and dichloromethane (DCM), TFA/DCM solvents as well as between electric field strength and chitosan concentration had the most significant effect, followed by the concentration of chitosan in terms of producing nanofibres with uniform diameters. Chitosan and chitosan-silver nanofibres could be successfully electrospun by controlling the solution properties, such as surface tension and electrical conductivity with the silver nanoparticles in the chitosan solutions affecting the electrospinnability. The silver nanoparticles in the chitosan solution modified the morphological characteristics of the electrospun nanofibres, while the conductivity and the surface tension were elevated. The fibre diameter of the chitosan and chitosan-silver nanoparticles decreased with an increase in the silver content. The electrospun chitosan nanofibres had a smooth surface and round shape as compared to the silver-chitosan nanofibres with a distorted morphology. The chitosan and chitosan-silver nanofibres as well as the silver nanoparticles exhibited antimicrobial or inhibition activity against S. aureus than against E. coli. S. aureus bacterial culture showed good cell adhesion and spreading inwards into the chitosan nanofibrous membrane. The chitosan-silver nanofibres exhibited a greater minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), followed by silver nanoparticles and then chitosan nanofibres; suggesting a synergistic effect between the chitosan and silver nanoparticles.

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Forensic analysis of evidence consists of the comparison of physical, spectroscopic, or chemical characteristics of a questioned sample to a set of knowns. Currently, decisions as to whether or not the questioned sample can be associated or grouped with the knowns are left up to the discretion of the forensic analyst. The implications of these outcomes are presented as evidence to a jury in a court of law to determine if a defendant is guilty of committing a crime or not. Leading up to, and since, the publication of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report entitled “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward,” the inadequacies of allowing potentially biased forensic opinion to carry such weight in the courtroom have been unmasked. This report exposed numerous shortcomings in many areas of forensic science, but also made recommendations on how to fortify the discipline. The main suggestions directed towards disciplines that analyze trace evidence include developing error rates for commonly employed practices and evaluating method reliability and validity. This research focuses on developing a statistical method of analysis for comparing visible absorption profiles collected from highly similarly colored textile fibers via microspectrophotometry (MSP). Several chemometric techniques were applied to spectral data and utilized to help discriminate fibers beyond the point where traditional methods of microscopical examination may fail. Because a dye's chemical structure dictates the shape of the absorption profile, two fibers dyed with chemically similar dyes can be very difficult to distinguish from one another using traditional fiber examination techniques. The application of chemometrics to multivariate spectral data may help elicit latent characteristics that may aid in fiber discrimination. The three sample sets analyzed include dyed fabric swatches (three pairs of fabrics were dyed with chemically similar dye pairs), commercially available blue yarns (100% acrylic), and denims fabrics (100% cotton). Custom dyed swatches were each dyed uniformly with a single dye whereas the dye formulation for both the yarns and denims is unknown. As a point for study, spectral comparisons were performed according to the guidelines published by the Standard Working Group for Materials Analysis (SWGMAT) Fiber Subgroup based on visual analysis only. In the next set of tests, principal components analysis (PCA) was utilized to reduce the dimensionality of the large multivariate data sets and to visualize the natural groupings of samples. Comparisons were performed using the resulting PCA scores where group membership of the questioned object was evaluated against the known objects using the score value as the distance metric. Score value is calculated using the score and orthogonal distances, the respective cutoff values based on a quantile percentage, and an optimization parameter, ?. Lastly, likelihood ratios (LR) were generated from density functions modelled from similarity values assessing comparisons between sample population data. R code was written in-house to execute all method of fiber comparisons described here. The SWGMAT method performed with 62.7% accuracy, the optimal accuracy rate for the score value method was 75.9%, and the accuracy rates for swatch-yarn and denim comparisons, respectively, are 97.7% and 67.1% when the LR method was applied.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1933 H305

A dual inclusion strategy for textile polymers has been investigated to increase elastic energy storage capacity of fibers used in high velocity impact applications. Commercial fibers such as Spectra and Dyneema are made from ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Dynamic elastic energy of these fibers is still low therefore limiting their wholesale application without a secondary metallic or ceramic component. The idea in this investigation is to develop methodologies so that the elastic energy of polyethylene based fibers can be increased by several folds. This would allow manufacturing of an all-fabric system for high impact applications. The dual inclusion consists of a polymer phase and a nanoscale inorganic phase to polyethylene. The polymer phase was nylon-6 and the inorganic phase was carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Nylon-6 was blended as a minor phase into UHMWPE and was chosen because of its large fracture strain - almost one order higher than that of UHMWPE. On the other hand, CNTs with their very high strength, modulus, and aspect ratio, contributed to sharing of load and sliding of polymer interfaces as they aligned during extrusion and strain hardening processes. A solution spinning process was developed to produce UHMWPE filaments reinforced with CNTs and nylon-6. The procedure involved dispersing of CNTs into paraffin oil through sonication followed by dissolving polymers into paraffin-CNT solution using a homogenizer. The admixture was fed into a single screw extruder for melt mixing and extrusion through an orifice. The extrudate was rinsed via a hexane bath, stabilized through a heater, and then drawn into a filament winder with controlled stretching. In the next step, the as produced filaments were strain-hardened through repeated loading unloading cycles under tension. / Neat and reinforced filaments were characterized through DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry), XRD (X-ray Diffraction), Raman Spectroscopy, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), and mechanical tests. Phenomenal improvement in properties was found; modulus, strength, fracture strain, and elastic energy increased by 219%, 100%, 107% and 88%, respectively before strain hardening. Once strain hardened the strength, modulus and elastic energy increased by almost one order of magnitude. Source of these improvements were traced to increase in crystallinity and rate of crystallization, formation of microdroplets as a minor phase, sliding between minor and major phases, coating of nanotubes with polymer and alignment of nanotubes. / by Mujibur Rahman Khan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The aim of the dissertation is to investigate the dependencies of the structure of polyester multifilament yarn fabrics and their permeability to air on the fabric structure factors and to develop methods for designing air permeable fabrics.

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