Double‐nozzle air‐jet electrospinning for nanofiber fabrication

Abstract

A novel double-nozzle air-jet electrospinning apparatus was developed to fabricate nanofibers on a large scale. The distribution of the electric field at different nozzle distances was simulated to analyze the jet path, productivity, and deposition area of nanofiber webs and the nanofiber morphology. Our experiments showed that the bubbles usually ruptured intermittently on the top surface of the two nozzles and the jets traveled in a straight path with a high initial velocity. A continuous and even thickness of the nanofiber webs were obtained when the nozzle distances was less than 55 mm. At nozzle distances of 55 mm, the received fibers were thin with the lowest standard deviation. Experimental parameters involving the applied voltage, collecting distance, and air flow rate were also investigated to analyze the nanofiber morphology at a nozzle distance of 55 mm. The results show that the nanofibers presented a finer and thinner diameter at an applied voltage of 36 kV, a collecting distance of 18 cm, and an air flow rate of 800 mL/min. The nanofiber production of this setup increased to nearly 70 times that with a single-needle electrospinning setup. On the basis of the principle of this air-jet electrospinning setup, various arrangements of multinozzle electrospinning setups could be designed for higher throughput of nanofibers.

Preparation and In Vitro/In Vivo Evaluation of Cyclosporin A-Loaded Nanodecorated Ocular Implants for Subconjunctival Application

“…Poly(lactide‐co‐glycolide) or PCL nanoparticles‐loaded fiber implants were prepared by two‐nozzle electrospinning method. Two‐nozzle electrospinning was performed using the simultaneous electrospinning of different solutions from two needle tips . In this study, PCL (MW: 80,000 g/mol) was used as the fiber polymer composition.…”

Electrospinning: an advanced nanofiber production technology

“…A gas-jet electrospinning technique (also referred to as bubble electrospinning) was developed in 2007 [150]; it used gas to create bubbles on the liquid surface, which increased surface curvature and facilitated jet initiation. Since the introduction of this, gas-initiated electrospinning has attracted great interest [151,152]. In nozzle electrospinning [153] and needleless electrospinning [154], highspeed gas can improve nanofiber production rate because airflow can enhance solution jet stretching, thus facilitating jet initiation.…”

In vivo tissue distribution and efficacy studies for cyclosporin A loaded nano-decorated subconjunctival implants

“…The advantage of this method is that structure and morphology of the fiber can be controlled, by modifying several parameters such as polymer type, concentration of solution, solvent or electrospinning conditions (Zhang et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2016). Two nozzle electrospinning technique was used in this study to provide simultaneous spinning of fiber polymer and CsAloaded nanoparticles to obtain nanoparticle-loaded fibers (Pu et al, 2014).…”