Fabrication of Guar-Only Electrospun Nanofibers by Exploiting a High- and Low-Molecular Weight Blend

We present a facile approach to electrospin nanofibers of guar galactomannan by blending high- and low-molecular weights (MWs) of guar. We discover that while neither native high MW guar nor hydrolyzed low MW guar is electrospinnable on its own, their combination leads to synergism in producing defect-free nanofibers. Such an approach of fabricating nanofibers from blending multiple MWs of the same polymer may provide an easy route to produce nanofibers of biopolymers which are typically hard to electrospin. Rheological studies reveal that a limiting amount of native guar is needed for electrospinnability, and for those systems that have the proportionate amount of native guar, there is a critical total concentration above which fibers form. Interestingly, a plot of blend viscosity versus guar concentration reveals two power-law regimes with an inflection point, above which fiber formation can be achieved akin to the behavior observed for pure (i.e., nonblend) polymers.