Highly flexible and tough concentric triaxial polystyrene fibers.

A combination of appropriate reinforcing material and morphology led to the highly tough, flexible, and strong polystyrene fibers by electrospinning. Concentric fiber morphology with reinforcing elastomeric thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) sandwiched between the two layers of polystyrene made by a special nozzle (triaxial) showed toughness of >270 J g(-1) and 300% elongation without any cracks in comparison to toughness of <0.5 J g(-1) and elongation at break of <5% of polystyrene single fibers. The concentric triaxial morphology showed great advantage in comparison to the coaxial structure. Toughness and elongation at break were 1376 and 628% higher, respectively, for triaxial morphology in comparison to the coaxial fibers because of the better interface from the sandwich structure.