Electrospinning of aligned fibers with adjustable orientation using auxiliary electrodes

Abstract

A conventional electrospinning setup was upgraded by two turnable plate-like auxiliary high-voltage electrodes that allowed aligned fiber deposition in adjustable directions. Fiber morphology was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR). The auxiliary electric field constrained the jet bending instability and the fiber deposition became controllable. At target speeds of 0.9 m s −1 90% of the fibers had aligned within 2 • , whereas the angular spread was 70• without the use of auxiliary electrodes. It was even possible to orient fibers perpendicular to the rotational direction of the target. The fiber diameter became smaller and its distribution narrower, while according to the FTIR-ATR measurement the molecular orientation of the polymer was unaltered. This study comprehensively documents the feasibility of directed fiber deposition and offers an easy upgrade to existing electrospinning setups.

Steering of an electrospinning jet by dynamic manipulation of the electric field

“…First, the target velocity to achieve straight and aligned fibers was determined by operating the auxiliary electrodes in "focus mode" [3]. The auxiliary electrodes were supplied with the same high voltage for U 1 and U 2 of -10 kV to focus the jet between the plates and to mini-mize the bending instability.…”

A review of electrospinning manipulation techniques to direct fiber deposition and maximize pore size

“…A control system must be used to increase the accuracy of the electrospinning process. There are several methods that can be used to manipulate the created nanofibers described in previous studies, such as electric field manipulation, alternating current (AC) electrospinning, and magnetic field manipulation [80,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112].…”

“…These constructs can be placed as a frame around the desired path of polymer to force the fibers toward the center. As a result, the path of polymer fibers can be steered toward a target [96,97,99]. In the experiments performed by Bellan and Craighead, an addition of steering electrodes placed in a circle near the target of the system can reduce the resulting spot size to 5 mm in diameter (Figure 4) [97].…”

Multi-compartment centrifugal electrospinning based composite fibers

“…Together with naturally occurring fiber and industrial blending and alignment, these constitute towards vital fiber components [31]. In this regard, synthetic design, construction and engineering of aligned fiber blends is crucial to further advance potential biomaterial systems [32,33].…”