(Adv. Funct. Mater.) Bio-inspired Heterostructured Fibers with Bead-on-String to Respond the Environmental Wetting
writer：X. Tian, H. Bai, Y. Zheng*, & L. Jiang
keywords：Bioinspired Materials
source：期刊
specific source：Adv. Funct. Mater. 2011, 21, 1398-1402
Issue time：2011年
Inspired by the geometric structure of ecribellate spider capture silk and its spinning characteristics, we propose a one-step electrohydrodynamic method to fabricate bead-on-string heterostructured fi bers (BSHFs). By combining electrospinning and electrospraying strategies using a sprayable outer fluid with low viscosity and a spinnable inner fl uid with high viscosity in a coaxial jetting process, hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) beads are successfully imprinted on a hydrophobic polystyrene string. It is demonstrated that the BSHFs are capable of intelligently responding to environmental change. With a change in relative humidity, the fi bers show a segmented swelling and shrinking behavior in the “bead” parts whereas the “string” parts remain the same. The elastic BSHFs with alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface characteristics represent a type of mesoscale analogues that block copolymers and may bring about new properties and applications. Moreover,
the combined electrohydrodynamic approach developed herein should open new routes to multifunctional one-dimensional heterostructured materials.