Modeling and simulation of axisymmetric coating growth on nanofibers

Abstract

This work is a modeling and simulation extension of an integrated experimental/modeling investigation of a procedure to coat nanofibers and core-clad nanostructures with thin film materials using plasma enhanced physical vapor deposition. In the experimental effort, electrospun polymer nanofibers are coated with metallic materials under different operating conditions to observe changes in the coating morphology. The modeling effort focuses on linking simple models at the reactor level, nanofiber level, and atomic level to form a comprehensive model. The comprehensive model leads to the definition of an evolution equation for the coating free surface. This equation was previously derived and solved under a single-valued assumption in a polar geometry to determine the coating morphology as a function of operating conditions. The present work considers the axisymmetric geometry and solves the evolution equation without the single-valued assumption and under less restrictive assumptions on the concentration field than the previous work.