RE-Based Inorganic-Crystal Nanofibers Produced by Electrospinning for Photonic Applications

Abstract

Electrospinning is an effective and inexpensive technique to grow polymer materials in nanofiber shape with exceptionally high surface-area-to-volume ratio. Although it has been known for about a century, it has gained much interest in the new millennium thanks to its low cost and versatility, which has permitted to obtain a large variety of multifunctional compositions with a rich collection of new possible applications. Rare-earth doped materials possess many remarkable features that have been exploited, for example, for diode pumped bulk solid-state lasers in the visible and near infrared regions, or for biomedical applications when grown in nanometric form. In the last few decades, electrospinning preparation of rare-earth-doped crystal nanofibers has been developed and many different materials have been successfully grown. Crystal host, crystal quality and nanosized shape can deeply influence the optical properties of embedded rare earth ions; therefore, a large number of papers has recently been devoted to the growth and characterization of rare earth doped nanofibers with the electrospinning technique and an up-to-date review of this rapidly developing topic is missing; This review paper is devoted to the presentation of the main results obtained in this field up to now with particular insight into the optical characterization of the various materials grown with this technique.

Chicken utricle stromal cell-derived decellularized extracellular matrix coated nanofibrous scaffolds promote auditory cell production

“…Previous studies have proved that inner ear stem cells have multidifferentiation potential and can differentiate into hair cells under certain induction conditions [16]. In addition, the scaffolds prepared by the electrospinning have a micro/nano structure and a large surface area-to-volume ratio [47]. At the same time, the scaffolds also can mimic the structure of the natural ECM, which can enhance cell attachment, proliferation and differentiation [48].…”

Miniaturized Biosensors Based on Lanthanide-Doped Upconversion Polymeric Nanofibers

“…Moreover, the collector temperature and atmosphere humidity can have a large influence on the fiber quality. The electrospinning technique naturally leads to the growth of amorphous materials; therefore, a calcination step is always needed to obtain crystal nanofibers [ 86 ]. Among the obstacles and difficulties is the complexity of the fabrication process, the range of materials that can be spun, the homogeneity of the fibers, and reproducibility.…”

A Novel Method to Enhance the Mechanical Properties of Polyacrylonitrile Nanofiber Mats: An Experimental and Numerical Investigation

“…Additionally, research by Stachewicz et al [28] demonstrated the impregnation of nylon (PA6) nanofibers into a high-concentration polymer solution, which, while improving the mechanical properties of the PA6 nanofiber mat, compromised its porosity, because the PVA solution filled the gaps within the mat, transforming it into a composite polymeric film. Meanwhile, Tang et al [29] have illustrated that a dip-coating method is predominantly utilized to fabricate functional fibrous materials for applications such as self-cleaning surfaces [30], conductive textiles [31], oil-water separation [32], energy storage [33], and photonic crystals [34].…”