are produced by
electrospinning a solution (70–200 μM polymer) of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene]
(MEH-PPV) (molecular weight 380 000 g/mol, American Dye Source
Inc.). Sprayed films of microbeads and microfibers are obtained at
concentrations >200 μM. The polymer is dissolved in a 1:4
(weight:weight)
mixture of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). The
electrospinning system consists of a microprocessor dual drive syringe
pump (33 Dual Syringe Pump, Harvard Apparatus Inc.), feeding the polymer
solution through the metallic needle at constant rate (10 μL/min).
A 11 kV bias is applied between the needle and a metallic collector
(needle-collector distance 6 cm), made of two Al stripes positioned
at a mutual distance of 2 cm. The MEH-PPV nanofibers are collected
on a 1 × 1 cm2 quartz substrate for optical investigation.
Arrays of uniaxially aligned nanofibers are also produced by using
a rotating collector (4000 rpm, corresponding to a linear velocity
of 30 m/s at the disk edge) for emission polarization measurements,
featuring similar morphology and optical properties as samples deposited
on the Al stripes. The fiber morphology is investigated by scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) using a Nova NanoSEM 450 system (FEI), with
an acceleration voltage of 5–10 kV.