SEBS electrospun membranes for oil absorption: process optimization

本项目旨在优化和扩大静电纺丝工艺，以获得纳米纤维/共聚物膜，以提高大功率变压器二次防油用Albarrie高吸水性智能织物的反应速度。在由Engage资助的第一阶段项目中，Demarquette教授和她的团队与albarrie有限公司的研究团队合作，获得了几种电纺丝膜，并测试了它们的保油性。所得结果表明，三种嵌段共聚物是最佳的留油剂。他们还指出，Albarrie有限公司生产的智能织物中使用的共聚物的数量可以减少5倍，以纳米纤维的形式，这意味着膜的成本降低了50%。在第一阶段的项目中，膜是使用国产静电纺丝机获得的，该工艺存在几个限制：只能获得面积约为10 cm2的小膜；观察到针头堵塞的复发性问题。此外，该工艺在膜的几何形状和纳米纤维尺寸方面没有得到优化。因此，本项目旨在优化和扩大纺丝工艺，以获得用于保油的纳米纤维共聚物膜。该项目的步骤是1)解决纺纱过程中注射器堵塞的问题2)扩大工艺规模3)扩大工艺优化该项目最终将导致在Albarrie有限公司创造高质量的制造业就业机会。该项目将加强加拿大在石油遏制和石油泄漏应对技术方面的领先地位，并有助于减轻公众对石油生产、运输和开采过程中潜在环境风险的担忧

This project aims at optimizing and scaling up the electrospinning process to obtain membranes of nanofibersof copolymers to improve the reaction rate of Albarrie super absorbent smart fabrics for high powertransformer secondary oil containment application.In a first phase project, financed by an Engage grant, Prof. Demarquette and her team in collaboration withAlbarrie Ltd. research team obtained several electrospun membranes and tested them for oil retention. Theobtained results indicated three block copolymers as best candidates for oil retention. They also indicated thatthe quantity of copolymers used in the smart fabrics produced by Albarrie Ltd. , could be reduced by 5 folds ifin the form of nanofibers, which would imply a cost reduction for the membranes of 50%. During the firstphase project, the membranes were obtained using a homemade electrospinning machine and the processpresented several limitations: only small membranes with an area of around 10 cm2 could be obtained; arecurrent problem of needle clogging was observed. Furthermore, the process was not optimized in terms ofmembranes geometry and nanofiber size.The present project aims therefore at optimizing and scaling up the spinning process to obtain copolymermembranes of nanofibers to be used in oil retention. The steps of the project are1) Solve the problem of syringe clogging during spinning2) Scale up of the process3) Optimisation of the scaled up processThis project shall ultimately lead to the creation of high-quality manufacturing jobs at Albarrie Ltd. Thisproject will strengthen Canada's position as a leader in oil containment and oil spill response technology andhelp mitigating public concerns over potential environmental risk related to oil production, transportation and