A comparative parameter study: Controlling fiber diameter and diameter distribution in centrifugal spinning of photocurable monomers

Abstract

In this study, key factors for controlling the average fiber diameter and diameter distribution of fibers made via simultaneous centrifugal spinning and UV initiated polymerization are elucidated. Through systematic investigation, it was found that average fiber diameter has a strong dependence on monomer delivery rate through the orifice, which can be intuitively linked to both the orifice diameter and monomer mixture viscosity. On the other hand, the breadth of the fiber diameter distribution can be controlled by the spin speed of the rotating spinneret. Carefully tuning these process parameters allows near independent control of fiber diameter and its distribution, which could provide access to a widely tailorable range of fiber diameters and diameter distributions appropriate for different applications. Finally, under optimized process conditions, crosslinked fibers with average diameters of approximately 1.5 µm can be produced, which are one to two orders of magnitude smaller than photocured fibers fabricated in previous reports and comparable with the smallest melt blown nonwoven fibers produced commercially. Coupled with the advantages of cross-linked fibers made by in-situ photopolymerization, the capability to produce small fibers with tailored

High‐efficiency preparation of polypropylene nanofiber by melt differential centrifugal electrospinning

“…According to the previous experiments, it was found that when the spinning temperature was below 200 °C, the melt viscosity was too high for the spinning condition, causing unstable flow and hence the large droplet When the spinning temperature was above 240 °C, oxidation and thermal degradation starts to occur as indicated by the yellowness of the fibers, and its strength was weak . So, we chose 200–240 °C as the spinning temperature.…”

A review on nanofiber fabrication with the effect of high-speed centrifugal force field

“…13 The viscosity of spinning solution is the other important parameter. 12 It also affects the nanofiber fabrication in the process of centrifugal spinning. The viscous force prevents the jet shape changing rapidly and helps to form smooth nanofibers.…”

“…In order to realize the ordered nanofiber collection, many scholars have made a lot of attempts and gained some experience, which provided useful reference for the subsequent studies. 12,50,60 Badrossamay and Senthilram studied the effect of the relationship between the collection distance and the solvent evaporation time on collecting ordered fibers when the concentration of solution and the motor speed were constant. For different polymer solution jets, the characteristic parameters are quite different.…”

“…Moreover, they have made preliminary studies on the nanofiber fabrication. 12 These studies show that the centrifugal spinning technology has an attractive prospect and the aforementioned deficiencies of electrospinning can be overcome. First of all, fabricating nanofibers by centrifugal force does not need high electric field.…”

Poly(methyl vinyl ether-alt-maleic acid) and ethyl monoester as building polymers for drug-loadable electrospun nanofibers

“…The size scale of the nanofibers, similar to that of cellular components, can mimic that of the extracellular matrix of biological tissues, and interactions at the molecular level could be exploited to enhance the therapeutic potential of functional agents loaded within nanofibers 4 , 16 , 17 . Different techniques including vapor deposition 18 , 19 , phase separation 11 , 20 , 21 , self-assembly 22 – 24 and centrifugal spinning 25 – 27 can be used to synthesize such nanofibers, but electrospinning is the most widely adopted one due to its advantages for implementation/commercialization purposes 28 – 31 .…”