Apparatus for preparing electrospun nanofibers: designing an electrospinning process for nanofiber fabrication

Abstract

Nanofibers are widely used in a range of material applications, such as filter media, biosensors, military protective coatings, three‐dimensional tissue scaffolds, composites, drug delivery, wound dressings and electronic devices. To fabricate nanofibers with desired physical and chemical functions, a variety of electrospinning processes have been introduced using specially designed collectors, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) nozzle tips and auxiliary electrodes to stabilize the spin jets. However, the development of new electrospinning processes continues in the search for ‘tailor‐made’ nanofibers, in which parameters such as the fiber orientation and three‐dimensional structure are ultimately controllable. This paper discusses recently suggested electrospinning methods that are designed to impart specific functionality. It also details the correlations between applied processing parameters and the obtained physical properties of electrospun fibers. Finally, future design directions are suggested for developing an electrospinning apparatus capable of producing optimally structured nanofibers. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry

Literature review on superhydrophobic self‐cleaning surfaces produced by electrospinning

“…33 Similar to coaxial electrospinning, a spinneret with two side-by-side nozzles can be used to produce bi-component fibers. 38 In contrast to traditional fiber extrusion methods (i.e., melt spinning and melt-blowing), electrospinning relies on the electrical force that elongates a jet very slowly 36 Therefore, the productivity of single-nozzle electrospinning set-up is very low (typically 0.1-1 g/h). 56 The obvious way to increase productivity is to use multiple nozzles.…”

“…37 The nano-dimension of electrospun fibers and the simple and convenient production process makes electrospinning a very attractive candidate to use in such applications as filter membranes, biomedical scaffolds, wound dressing, nano-sensors and protective clothing. 38 Despite the fact that the number of scientific papers concerning electrospinning significantly increased in recent years, this process has been known for almost 100 years, with some related studies dating back to the 18th century. 33 The first devices to electrospray liquids were patented by Cooley and Morton at the very beginning of the 20th century (US Patents 692,631; 705,691; 745,276), and the electrospinning process of polymers with detailed description was patented by Formhals in 1934 (US Patent 1,975,504).…”

Fabrication of electrospun polyacrylonitrile ion-exchange membranes for application in lysozyme adsorption

“…According to previous studies [12][13][14][15][16][17][18], electrospinning is the only direct, efficient, and continuous method for producing polymer nanofibers showing the most promise and greatest efficiency. Hundreds of polymer nanofibers of various kinds have been developed using electrospinning.…”

Electrospun Fibrous Scaffolds of Poly(glycerol-dodecanedioate) for Engineering Neural Tissues From Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

“…Additionally, transferring fibers from the ground collector to the culture dish or other substrates is a challenge 5 . In this report, a newly designed collector, made simply by attaching an aluminum foil strip to the grounded collector, was able to obtain large size fiber mats up to 10 cm by 20 cm at a time.…”