RESUMO
This paper reports the effects of structural parameters on organic liquid impregnation behavior into nanofibrous (NF) polymer membranes. The NF membranes were prepared from organic liquidphilic polymers, poly(amide-imide)s (PAIs), by electrospinning. The impregnation velocity of the organic liquid, ethylmethylcarbonate, into the as-spun PAI NF membranes with diameters ranging from 400 to 900 nm was approximately 10-20 times higher than that into commercial cellulose nonwoven membranes. Our theoretical analyses based on the Kozeny-Carman equation and multivariate statistics clearly indicate that in addition to the porosity of the membranes, the variation in fiber diameter as well as the average fiber diameter is a crucial factor for controlling the liquid impregnation behavior.