Continuous polymer nanofiber yarns prepared by self-bundling electrospinning method

Comparison of the Effects of an Ionic Liquid and Triethylbenzylammonium Chloride on the Properties of Electrospun Fibers, 1 – Poly(lactic acid)

“…Since this work was completed, other researchers have published some similar research and were the first to report the method illustrated in Figure 7 to account for aggregate fibers, which they termed self-bundled; [28] We agree with their hypothesis. Their self-bundled fibers showed better structure than we observed, as well as bimodal fibers, which we rarely observed, but they did not report any fiber fusion, or discuss the effects of increased salt content on the fiber formation.…”

Comparison of the Effects of an Ionic Liquid and Other Salts on the Properties of Electrospun Fibers, 2 – Poly(vinyl alcohol)

“…It is well established that solution conductivity is one of the most important factor influencing fiber diameter; [29,34] specifically, as conductivity increases, the fiber diameter decreases. [17,37,44,46] Viscosity is less important [25][26][27]34] for the diameter but does play a role in Taylor cone and jet formation, fiber splaying and varicose features in electrospun fiber. [17] Surface tension plays a role in both.…”

“…Recently, another paper was published which reported a similar fiber collision phenomenon, [44] and although they did not observe fusion and additional thinning, they also reported the aggregation (self-bundling) of fibers. We agree and accept the same collision mechanism (Figure 5a) which terminates with the aggregation or bundling, if the fibers are already solidified, but the aggregation is followed by fiber fusion and additional extension if the aggregation occurs prior to solidification (Figure 5b and c).…”

“…At the time this work was begun, there were no reports concerning the effects of adding roomtemperature ionic liquids (RTILs) to electrospinning solutions, but since that time the use of an RTIL as the primary solvent for electrospinning cellulose nanofibers has been reported [43] and, even more recently, an RTIL was used as the solvent for poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide). [44] In this work, we compare the effects of adding just small amounts of three different types of salt -an RTIL (HMIMCl), a quaternary ammonium salt, triethylbenzylammonium chloride (TEBAC) (Figure 2), and an inorganic chloride salt (KCl) -on the solution properties, electrospinning, and resulting fiber characteristics of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) electrospun from a predominantly aqueous solution of PVA. The objectives of the work were to compare the effects of different types of salts and to see if their performance differed significantly when added to an aqueous solution compared to a non-polar organic solutions.…”

Electrospinning of Continuous Nanofiber Bundles and Twisted Nanofiber Yarns

“…Subsequent thermal conversion led to bundles of PPV nanofibers. , Wang et al (Wang et al, 2008b reported a method to self assemble continuous nanofiber bundles (Table 3D). A grounded needle tip was incorporated into the collecting system to induce self-bundling of nanofibers.…”