Abstract
Nanotechnologies allow the production of yarns containing nanofibres for use in composites, membranes and biomedical materials. Composite yarns with a conventional thread core for mechanical strength and a nanofibrous envelope for functionality, e.g. biological, catalytic, have many advantages. Until now, the production of such yarns has been technologically difficult. Here, we show an approach to composite yarn production whereby a plume of nanofibers generated by high throughput AC needleless and collectorless electrospinning is wound around a classic thread. In the resulting yarn, nanofibres can form up to 80% of its weight. Our yarn production speed was 10 m/min; testing showed this can be increased to 60 m/min. After the yarn was embedded into knitwear, scanning electron microscope images revealed an intact nanofibrous envelope of the composite yarn. Our results indicate that this production method could lead to the widespread production and use of composite nanofibrous yarns on an industrial scale.
Highlights
The ability to form continuous yarns consisting of nanofibres is a significant breakthrough in electrospinning, as the nanofibre yarn can be woven or knitted into textiles
As an example of this, we have shown a promising application of the nanofibrous plume, namely the production of composite nanofibrous yarns
Our apparatus has great potential because it enables the linear density of the yarn core to be reduced to as little as 10 dtex, if required
Summary
The ability to form continuous yarns consisting of nanofibres is a significant breakthrough in electrospinning, as the nanofibre yarn can be woven or knitted into textiles. Theron et al used a similar device to direct the nanofibres produced by a needle electrospinning process onto the periphery of a rotating disc-shaped collector[3]. Ali et al.[6] developed a method for the continuous production of nanofibres using a rotating ring collector. Another method for producing a composite yarn coated with nanofibres using DC needleless electrospinning was developed by Jirsak et al.[7] and Yalcinkaya et al.[8]. We have created a high throughput method for producing composite yarns with a massive nanofibrous envelope
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