Fabrication of electrostatic-induction-assisted solution blowing spinning nanofibers and its mechanism

Abstract

Commonly used nanofiber fabrication technologies have many shortcomings: the yield of electrospinning is low, solution blowing spinning (SBS) and its improved technologies have problems with large fiber diameter, non-uniform nanofiber diameter and poor receiving aggregation of nanofibers on receiver. A nanofiber fabrication technology called electrostatic-induction-assisted solution blowing spinning (ESBS), which overcomes these disadvantages, was developed in this paper. This technology utilizes the joint action of electrostatic force and airflow stretching force to stretch the jet to fabricate nanofibers. The grounding of the blunt needle realizes the directional migration and dynamic circulation of charges in the ESBS microscopic system. Compared with traditional SBS, the average diameter and diameter standard deviation of ESBS nanofibers can be reduced by 44 % and 80.8 %, respectively, and the fiber cover rate can be increased by 329.7 %. In contrast to the cylindrical-electrode-assisted solution blowing spinning, the mean diameter and diameter standard deviation of ESBS nanofibers can be reduced by 34.6 % and 68.1 %, respectively, and the fiber cover rate can be increased by 305 %. The microcosmic fabrication mechanism of ESBS nanofibers—“the theory of separation and directional transfer of charges” was proposed and verified. ESBS nanofibers with single-needle injection speed up to 200 μl/min (far exceeding the 4–10 μl/min injection speed of conventional electrospinning) were successfully fabricated to prove that this technology has great industrial potential. ESBS nanofibers with small and uniform diameter, high yield, and good receiving aggregation of fibers on receiver have bright application prospects in many fields.