Abstract
Standard electrospinning deposits disorderly nanofibers on a conducting collector owing to unstable whipping of the jet. Nevertheless, biological engineering requires orderly electrospun nanofibers to improve mechanical properties and cellular proliferation. An attempt is made to fabricate well-orientated nanofibers by applying an overlapping collector. It turns out that electrospinning deposits random and disorderly nanofibers as usual even if conducting aluminum foil, as a collector, overlaps insulating poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film. When insulating PET film overlapping aluminum foil is applied as a collector, the PET film accumulates ions to repel the whipping filament in the space while nonoverlapping aluminum foil attracts the filament such that electrospinning deposits orientated nanofibers on the insulating PET film.
Highlights
As an efficient process to produce nanofibers, electrospinning has attracted much attention with the development of micro- and/or nanoscale manufacturing technologies in recent years
Fig. (2) shows nanofibers deposited on patterned aluminum foil with overlapping poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film
Fig. (2A-D) are SEM graphs of electrospun nanofibers extracted from corresponding locations of patterned aluminum foil as shown in Fig. (1)
Summary
As an efficient process to produce nanofibers, electrospinning has attracted much attention with the development of micro- and/or nanoscale manufacturing technologies in recent years. Continuous solution supply results in a pendant adhering to the nozzle exit due to surface tension force. Electric charges are injected from the nozzle into solution and transferred onto the pendant surface such that the pendant stretches into a cone shape under an applied electric force. A jet, carrying electric charges, issues from the pendant onto a collector once the electric force overcomes the surface tension force and viscous force. The unstable segment results from a primary instability, called the spiral whipping, in the space and a secondary instability on the collector under interactions of electric charges [10]. In biological engineering, applied orderly electrospun nanofibers are useful and valid to enhance cellular adherence and proliferation because of their advantages of large aspect ratio, structural uniformity, and better mechanical properties. This work discusses the effect of overlapping collector on the orientation of electrospun fibers
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