Fabrication of Nanofibers by Low-Voltage Near-Field Electrospinning

Abstract

In this paper, non-woven micro-/nanofibers and wavelike micro-ribbons were produced by a low-voltage near-field electrospinning with working voltage less than 2.8 kV and spinning distance less than 8 mm. A series of experiments were carried out to explore the influence of processing variables on the formation of near-field electrospun nanofibers (polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as an example), including concentration, humidity and spinning distance. The formation mechanism of helical fibers and wavelike micro-ribbons was also discussed, which can be ascribed to electrical driven bending instability and/or mechanical jet buckling when hitting the collector surface. The results indicate that the morphology of the electrospun fibers can be controlled by experimental variables. And the low-voltage near-field electrospinning is a promising technique which may be used in precision deposition of nanofibers for nanodevices, direct-write nanofabrication, etc.