Establishment of a one-dimensional physical model for electrospinning multiple jets of spinnerets

Abstract

Electrospinning is a technique used to prepare nanofiber material where an electrically charged jet of polymer solution is accelerated and stretched by electrostatic forces. There are two stages in electrospinning, the stable jet and bending instability. Almost all electrospinning research involves the theory and model of a single jet’s movement. Many devices for the mass production of nanofibers have been developed and studied to date. The multiple jets of spinnerets can form throughput nanofibers. However, a greater understanding is needed on the formation mechanism of these multiple jets, which would allow researchers to control nanofiber productivity and instruct spinneret design. In this work, we investigated the formation mechanism of multiple jets based on an annular spinneret. A one-dimensional physical model was established and multiple equations were combined; the wavelength [Formula: see text] with respect to the applied voltage [Formula: see text] was obtained based on the derivation of the theoretical formulation. The theory order relationship was verified with experiments using multiple jets containing the annular spinneret.