Preparation of Polymeric Nanofibers via in Situ Extrusion Polymerization Using Catalysts in Constrained Geometry

Recently, significant effort has been done to produce polymeric fibers of nano-scale diameters [1-2]. The most promising route to produce nanofibers is by electrospinning techniques in which because of the lack of the necessary molecular orientations present in fibers made by using this process, their applications don’t include strength or stiffness critical applications. On the other hand extended chain polymer crystals are stronger since they are already aligned in a specific direction [3-4]. Recent developments of synthesizing PE nanofibers using mesoporous silica channels opens up a new dimension in designing and producing fibers with exceptional properties that have not been realize yet. Clay sheets are highly anisotropic inorganic nanoparticles with nanometric interlamellar spacing, which they might have highly potential uses for polymerization with constrained geometries.In this work, we prepared polyethylene nanofibers via in situ extrusion polymerization with Cloisite Na+ supported TiCl4 catalytic system