Research and Development in Electrospinning Theory and Techn

Research and Development in Electrospinning Theory and Technology

Materials Science Forum Vol. 815 (2015) pp 695-700? (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

doi:10.4028/, b13311383599@126.com, czhangyc@mail.buct.edu.cn, dyongsd@iccas.ac.cn Keywords: Electrospinning, Nanofibers, Orientation, Process

Abstract. Based on the analysis of much related literature, the present article introduced some of the latest theoretical models and technologies. Meanwhile, it sums up two important issues in electrospinning development. One is that more studies will focus on melt fiber refinement and improving position accuracy. Another is orderly collection and spinning efficiency will be emphasized. This study provides a clear direction for further development of electrospinning. Introduction

In the past decades, nanomaterials have become an active research field because of its enormous potential applications. When the size of many well-studied materials is reduced to the nanoscale, many properties often radically been improved, such as color and melting point [1]. Compared to the other methods in producing nanofibers, electrospinning is more effective and energy saving. It contains solution electrospinning and melt electrospinning. The latter is more directly and environmental friendly. At the same time the surface of fibers made by melt electrospinning is more smoothly, which will improve the fiber strength. If the diameter of the melt electrospinning fibers can be reduced, the technology will be developed more quickly and the nanofibers will be applied in a wider field. In order to achieve deeper understanding of fiber changes in the melt electrospinning process and learn more the theory of this process, much experiments, high-speed photographs, and simulations have been carried out. Theoretic study can provide fundamental understanding of phenomena that take place in electrospinning process and guide the application effectively [2,3]. The messy fibers mat is the common electrospinning product now, but if we hope to get the fibers that are aligned or have special structures, the present methods of fiber collecting must be changed. At the same time, improving the efficiency of electrospinning is also an important challenge. In this review, we focused on the development of latest theoretical models and technologies of electrospinning. Theoretical exploration and development of electrospinning

Various kinds of electrospinning nanofibers have been fabricated using different materials and effective methods. The potential huge application of nanofibers aroused many interests in the theory of preparation nanofibers by electrospinning. Many researchers have studied the theoretical process of electrospinning, and proposed some theoretical models to interpret the phenomena happened during the electrospinning process.

In 1960s, Taylor first described the equilibrium state of a droplet in the mouth of a capillary by mathematical expressions and obtained the calculation formula of critical voltage [4]. Reneker established a three-dimensional stretch model to characterize the unsteady process of jet spinning, the model took the fiber’s surface tension force, sticky elasticity force, and the Coulomb interaction between molecular chains into account, at the same time introduced beads - chain model [5]. Then more people began to study theoretical simulation of electrospinning. Du et al. dispersed the charged electrospinning solution into a plurality of charged particles. Using RK (Runge-Kutta) algorithm, they analyzed these particle stress and calculated the trajectory of the particles [6]. The study established a magnetic field research model which described the fiber formation process more deeply. On the basis of electric fluid dynamics, rheology and electromagnetic field theory, Zhong et al.