I have tried tearing small pieces of the fiber mats and sonicating them in water and IPA. In IPA the fibers began to break apart slightly. SEM demonstrates some fibers may be sintered together due to incomplete solvent evaporation during the electrospinning process and either high mechanical force or use of a poor solvent may be needed to disperse the fibers. Thank you!
Hi, if you collect fibers as a mat of course I expect that some of them will be tied (or sintered) together due to incomplete solvent evaporation, this is extremely hard to avoid. Now if you need to study long single fibers, than it is better you try collecting them separately, which means try not overlapping them, or find a techniques which overlap them after some time (e.g. rotating collector). If, instead, you want to use your mats than you need to mechanically break the fibers and suspend them, using something like a disperser homogenizer or a torus mill. In my opinion, sonication in your case isn't enough.
As Alessandro mentioned, if you like long single nanofiber I also suggest to change the way of spinning.
If this is not an option, the group of A. Greiner in Bayreuth (D) has years of experience in cutting electrospun meshes, I suggest to check their publications for a suitable protocol.
e.g. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201500001
Thank you both for these helpful suggestions and your feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to aid my research. I will read a bit more and most likely try the suggested homogenization or milling methods.
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