Continuous Electrospinning of Aligned Polymer Nanofibers onto a Wire Drum Collector

Abstract

The process of electrospinning produces polymeric fibers with diameters ranging from the micrometer to the nanometer scale. As the fibers are produced, they are usually spun and collected in a random mat lacking structural orientation. In some applications there is interest in parallel alignment of nanofibers to produce structures with unique electrical, optical, and mechanical properties. A simple and successful method for spinning sheets with one centimeter wide strips of aligned nanofibers is presented. The technique uses copper wires spaced evenly in the form of a circular drum as a collector of the electrospun nanofibers. Aligned nanofiber sheets can be collected easily without disturbing the aligned structure, and the method is robust.

The Effect of Rotating Collector Design on Tensile Properties and Morphology of Electrospun Polycaprolactone Fibres

“…The first is a result of the electrostatic field and the second comes from Coulomb interactions between the positive charges in the nanofibres and the negative charges in conductive surfaces of the mandrel. In rotating collectors, those forces also work, as explained in the study of electrospinning using a wire drum collector [7]. During rotation, conductive surfaces of the mandrel alternately move closer to the needle tip.…”

“…It is possibly caused by charge accumulation in the already deposited fibre, or that the collected mat acts as a conductive collector [7].…”

“…Many devices applying nanofibrous structure require well aligned and ordered arrangement, such as those in microelectronics and photonics, nanoreinforcement, and tissue engineering [5][6][7][8]. Application of electrospun fibres in tissue engineering is strongly related to its potential in resembling the morphology of extracellular matrix in the body [9].…”

“…Using conductive plates with gap introduction, uniaxial fibres were formed in the gap region and oriented perpendicularly to the gap edges [8,19]. Mandrel from an insulated material and copper-wired drum were also able to produce sub-micron fibre sheet with aligned structure [7,20]. Yarn with oriented and continuous microfibres has also been fabricated using a dual collection ring [21].…”

Property of electrospinning silk fibroin nanofibers prepared by different dissolved methods

“…Electrospinning is a unique method capable of producing nanoscale fibers from both synthetic as well as natural polymers for biomedical applications [6,7]. The cylinder collector rotating at high speed can obtain aligned fiber was a simple and common way relative to other methods to obtain aligned fiber [8]. However, if the speed of collector was too higher, the fibers were easily to fracture.…”