Surface vibration electrospinning

Application
Mass production of nanofibers

Objective
Generation of surface perturbations to increase the density electrospinning jet initiations per unit area.

Background

It is known that electrospinning can be carried out off a solution surface in a tank [See Link]. The primary advantage of this method is that the electrospinning jets erupting from the surface are able to self-organized in terms of optimal distance between them for maximum jet density. However, this technique generally requires a much higher applied voltage to initiate electrospinning. For electrospinning to initiate, a critical density of charges within an electric field must be met. For a undisturbed solution surface, initiation of electrospinning jet will only occur when the random movement of the surface charges results in a transient accumulation of charges that rises above the critical charge density and a jet of solution erupts. A much higher voltage application is required as this increases the amount of charges and increases the probability of points on the surface reaching the critical charge density.

Prior to the demonstration of electrospinning off an undisturbed solution surface, researchers have used spikes protruding from the solution surface to to facilitate charge concentration and initiate electrospinning [See Link]. Later, bubbling of gas from inside the solution provides transient formation of protrusion as the bubble burst on the surface and this encourages jetting of the solution.

A limitation of this bubbling technique is that multiple gas lines need to be run within the tank to create bubbles along the whole surface. Base on the similar concept of surface disruption to facilitate charge concentration, a vibrating tank or device placed within the tank to cause vibration on the surface can be employed. The tremors on the whole solution surface will create multiple points of temporary protrusions where there is charge concentration which encourages fiber initiation.

Schematic of vibration electrospinning setup. This image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Hypothesis

• Surface vibration will lead to large density of jet initiation compared to a stationary free surface solution spinning tank due to generated irregularities on the solution surface.

Experimental status/request

• Invitation to comment
• Request for result of successful demonstration
• Request for collaboration to test concept

 

Contributor
Wee-Eong TEO
Email: weeeong@yahoo.com

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