Fabrication of polystyrene/porphyrin composite nanofibers using electrospinning

Abstract

Porphyrin and its derivatives have been very actively investigated because of their potential application in data storage, photonic and optoelectronic materials, photodynamic therapy, photovoltaic cells, and chemical sensors (1). Bard and coworkers developed an electrooptic data storage system by sandwiching solid thin films of a zinc-octakiz(β-decoxyethyl)porphyrin between two optically transparent electrodes (2). Porphyrins are good candidates for use in optoelectronic materials due to their greater thermal stability compared to typical organic chromophores and their extended π-conjugated macrocyclic ring system. This extended π-conjugation system can induce large nonlinear optical (NLO) effects. Porphyrins also find applications in electronic devices such as electronic switches, wires, and transistors. Electrospinning technology is a simple and low-cost method for making micro- and nanoscale fibers through the action of an external electric field imposed on a polymer solution (3). Electrospun fibers have very high surface area, mechanical strength, and flexibility. A variety of materials, such as polymers, inorganic compounds, and polymer/inorganic composite nanofibers have been used to prepare electrospun fibers. The nanofibers have many potential applications in tissue engineering, optical sensing, biosensing, and membrane technology. In this study, we have fabricated polystyrene/dicyanopyrazine-linked porphyrin composite fibers using the electrospinning technique. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to verify the structural compositions of the composite fibers. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to reveal the morphology of the composite fibers. FT-IR and UV-vis spectroscopy have been used to characterize the structure of the polystyrene/dicyanopyrazine-linked porphyrin composite fibers.