2013 journal article

Maximizing Spontaneous Jet Density and Nanofiber Quality in Unconfined Electrospinning: The Role of Interjet Interactions

MACROMOLECULES, 46(18), 7352–7362.

By: M. Roman n, N. Thoppey n, R. Gorga n, J. Bochinski n & L. Clarke n

co-author countries: United States of America 🇺🇸
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018

The interplay between an applied electric field and fluid properties was studied for a polymer solution forming high quality nanofibers via electrospinning. Unconfined electrospinning—in which a fluid thin film or bath exposed to an electric field spontaneously generates many parallel fiber-forming jets—is a practical approach to achieving a high fabrication rate of quality nanofibers as compared to traditional single-needle electrospinning. The density of fiber-forming jets is controlled by surface tension effects at the lowest applied voltages but by jet-to-jet interactions as the voltage amplitude is increased, resulting in an intermediate operating voltage level at which jet number is maximized. This general result is applicable to electric-field-driven fluid instabilities in a wide range of systems. The optimal voltage level occurs when interjet interactions begin to solely determine the characteristic jet spacing, and in this regime, compression of the cone-jet slightly chokes the feed rate, allowing high quality fibers to be formed when the maximum number of jets is present. Spontaneous jet deflection (here, from a linearly arranged source) results in a two-dimensional array at the collector which both minimizes interjet interactions and preserves fiber quality.