Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Materials Science and Engineering Volume 2013, Article ID 932636, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/932636 Research Article Nanofibre Electrospinning Poly(vinyl alcohol) and Cellulose Composite Mats Obtained by Use of a Cylindrical Electrode Anna Sutka, 1 Silvija Kukle, 1 Janis Gravitis, 2 Rimvydas Milašius, 3 and Jolanta Malašauskien{ 3 1 Institute of Textile Materials Technologies and Design, Riga Technical University, Riga 1048, Latvia 2 Laboratory of Biomass Eco-Efficient Conversation, Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, Riga 1006, Latvia 3 Department of Textile Technology, Kaunas University of Technology, 51424 Kaunas, Lithuania Correspondence should be addressed to Anna Sutka; anna.putnina@rtu.lv Received 30 May 2013; Revised 6 August 2013; Accepted 14 August 2013 Academic Editor: Yu Dong Copyright © 2013 Anna Sutka et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A study of nanoibre composites obtained by electrospinning from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solutions of steam exploded hemp ibres and shives is reported. A combined treatment of steam explosion (SE), ball milling, and high-intensity ultrasound (HIUS) is applied to prepare cellulose nanoibres (CNF) from hemp ibres (CNF-F) and shives (CNF-S). he relectance Fourier transform infrared (FTIR ATR) spectroscopy is used to analyze the obtained PVA/CNF composite mats. Morphology of the PVA/CNF composites was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). 1. Introduction Nanoibres based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) have numer- ous applications in various ields such as iltration materials, biomedical applications, membranes, drug release, optics, and protective clothing [1–3]. PVA is a semicrystalline, completely biodegradable, nontoxic, water-soluble, and bio- compatible polymer produced industrially by hydrolysis of poly(vinyl acetate) [4–6]. Recently, attention has been paid to modiication of the PVA nanoibres by diferent materials, such as car- bon nanotubes [7], titanium [8], silica [9], chitosan [10], collagen [11], cellulose nanocrystals [12, 13], and others. Reinforcement of PVA with cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) improves thermomechanical properties and reduces water absorption [12]. Development of CNC-illed nanocomposite ibres/mats generates new and speciic applications such as energy-related materials, sensors, barrier ilms, and tissue engineering scafolds [14]. In the present work, we combine PVA with cellulose nanoibres (CNF) obtained from hemp by electrospinning technique. To our knowledge, there has no report on the preparation of nanoibers of PVA/CNF composite. In this paper, we use CNF obtained from hemp ibers and hemp shives by combination of steam explosion (SE), ball milling, and high-intensity ultrasonication (HIUS) processing. In recent years, much attention has been focused on reinforced PVA nanoibre production by needle electro- spinning [8, 12, 14–17]. Electrospinning from needle-shaped electrode has low production rate and can be used only in laboratory scale [18]. In this research, electrospinning technique by using circular cylindrical electrode has been used for PVA/CNF composite preparation. Circular electrode has main advantage—larger production rate compared to the conventional needle electrospinning [18], and equipment modules for nanoiber production in small or high volumes are available [19]. 2. Materials and Methods Dew-retted hemp ibers of local variety “Purini” and shives of variety “Bialobrzeskie” grown on the experimental ields of the Latgalian Agriculture Research Center LLZC (district Vilani, Latvia) are used in this research. Hemp ibres and shives were treated using steam explo- sion treatment from previous researches [20, 21], milling treatment, and high-intensity ultrasonication technique.