Electrospinning polymer fibers is a well-understood process primarily resulting in random mats or single strands. More recent systems and methods have produced nanofiber yarns (NFY) for ease of use in textiles. This paper presents a method of NFY manufacture using a simplified dry electrospinning system to produce self-assembling functional NFY capable of conducting electrical charge. The polymer is a mixture of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), polyvinyl acrylate (PVA) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). When treated with ethylene glycol (EG) to enhance conductivity, fibers touching the collector plate align to the applied electrostatic field and grow by twisting additional nanofiber polymers injected by the jet into the NFY bundle. The longer the electrospinning continues, the longer and more uniformly twisted the NFY becomes. This process has the added benefit of reducing the electric field required for NFY production from >2.43 kV cm−1 to 1.875 kV cm−1.
We report a design of low-loss THz Bragg fibers with a core size on the order of wavelength that operates near the cutoff frequency of its TE01 mode. We also propose a broadband Y-type mode converter based on branched rectangular metallic waveguides to facilitate coupling between the TE01 mode of the Bragg fiber and the TEM mode in free space with 60% efficiency. Our fiber holds strong promise to facilitate beam-wave interaction in gyrotron for high-efficiency THz generation.
Electrospinning polymer fibers for is a well-understood process, primarily resulting in random mats or single strands. More recent systems and methods have allowed for the production of nanofiber yarns (NFY) for ease of use in textiles. This paper presents a method of NFY manufacture using a simplified dry electrospinning system to produce self-assembling functional NFY capable of conducting electrical charge. The polymer is a mixture of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), polyvinyl acrylate (PVA) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). When treated with Ethylene Glycol (EG) to enhance conductivity, fibers touching the collector plate align to the applied electrostatic field and grow, twisting together as additional nanofiber polymer is added by the jet. The longer the electrospinning continues, the longer and more uniformly twisted the NFY becomes. This process has the added benefit of reducing the electric field required for NFY production from >2.43 kV cm-1 to 1.875 kV cm-1.
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