Cyclodextrin short-nanofibers using sacrificial electrospun polymeric matrix for VOC removal

Cyclodextrins (CD) are cyclic oligosaccharides that can form noncovalent host-guest inclusion complexes to yield intriguing supramolecular structures. Electrospinning of nanofibers from CD is challenging since they are small molecules, nonetheless, electrospun nanofibers from CD would be particularly attractive because of the distinctive properties obtained by combining the very large surface area of nanofibers along with the inclusion complexation capability of CD. Herein, we performed the electrospinning of native CD type (i.e. gamma-CD) using a minimal amount of carrier polymeric matrix (polyethylene oxide (PEO)). Once, the uniform nanofibers were electrospun from gamma-CD/PEO systems, the polymeric carrier matrix was selectively removed by simple washing procedure, at the end, gamma-CD short-nanofibers were obtained. We observed that gamma-CD short-nanofibers could remove volatile organic compounds (VOC) (i.e. aniline) due to the inclusion complexation capability whereas pristine gamma-CD powder could not have the capability for the VOC removal.