Fabrication and Formation Mechanism of Electrospun Spatially Defined Fibrous Patterning Structures on Conductive and Insulating Substrates

Abstract

Besides the conductive patterning substrate, spatially well-defined microfibrous architectures can also be electrospun by using an insulating topographically structured collector (e.g.a nylon fabric). In both cases, it is proposed that the formation of the electrospun microfibrous patterns can be ascribed to the re-distribution of static electric field whenever collectors with different topography are introduced. Moreover, a series of simulation of the static electric field for various collectors (e.g.flat Al foil, conductive and insulating patterned substrates) have been systematically made to illustrate the formation mechanism, respectively. Our results are considered to warrant further scientific understanding on the formation of electrospun microfibrous patterning constructs, and helpful for easy generation of spatially defined architectures which have applications in a variety of areas such as tissue engineering, cell adhesion, proliferation and migration,etc.

Evaporation-induced self-assembled ultrathin AgNW networks for highly conformable wearable electronics

“…Subsequently, a current collector of 300 nm thick silver was deposited onto it. It is noted that the enhanced conductivity of metallic collector contributes to the selective deposition of electrospun nanofibers 34 . This phenomenon is well-analyzed and stimulated in the Supporting Information note 2.…”

Adhesion of Electrospun Poly(acrylonitrile) Nanofibers on Conductive and Isolating Foil Substrates

“…It is worth mentioning that on partially conductive substrates, higher nanofiber deposition is typically expected on conductive regions. The reason for this is the local deformation of the electric field between the two wires of the spinning device [15,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Therefore, it is rather unexpected that no differences could be observed between the nanofibers deposited on the conductive films and the insulating ones.…”