Abstract
Nanofibrous materials are currently widely used in many different areas. One of the technologies commonly used for their production is electrospinning. The mass distribution in a produced nanofibrous layer is a crucial factor especially for filtration applications and active ingredients or drug release applications. Image analysis is an efficient non-destructive method of a mass distribution determination, which has already been used in the evaluation of textiles and melt-blown webs, but so far only a few publications have dealt with its use in the field of electrospun materials. To facilitate the process of image analysis of deposited nanofibers, we developed a new collector electrode, which makes it possible to determine the optical mass distribution profile of the produced layer. A series of experiments proved that the developed collector allows an easy evaluation of the appearance of nanofibrous layers as well as the effects of many associated factors such as emitter configuration on the resulting sample. The results showed how the properties of nanofibrous layers (such as deposition zone dimensions, location of these zones, mass distribution profiles produced by different spinning nozzles) can change during the electrospinning process. The advantages of the method described in the present article are that it allows a contactless and non-destructive determination of mass distribution, detection of macroscopic defects, and investigation of causes behind layer thickness inhomogeneities. All in all, the presented method is a useful research and development tool for the field of electrospinning.
Highlights
Nanofibrous materials are currently widely used in many different areas
Pixel intensities measured along a straight line had a gauss-like profile, as expected. This means that the greatest amount of fibres was deposited in the centre of the deposition zone and the amounts decreased towards the sides
It was shown that a combination of a simple and inexpensive image-taking setup, consisting of a LED panel and a digital camera, and the developed collector, forms a useful tool for a basic research of the electrospinning process
Summary
Nanofibrous materials are currently widely used in many different areas. Nanofibrous and submicrofibrous materials draw interest due to their high surfaceto-volume ratio and the applicable properties of the input polymers. Electrostatic spinning is a versatile technology for the production of micro- and nanofibers Nowadays, it is widely used in many fields including filtration [1], tissue engineering [2, 3], electrochemistry [4], sensors [5], composites [6], drug delivery [7], and biomedical applications [8]. Fibres are, in most cases, spun onto various substrates, such as aluminium foils and nonwoven fabrics Both the non-transparent nature of the collectors and the use of substrates prevent a direct assessment of the spinning process and its results. The nanofibrous layers studied in these papers were analysed mostly on
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