Page 23 - Tailoring Electrospinning Techniques for Regenerative Medicine - Marc Simonet
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Electrospinning uses an electrostatic force to draw fibers from a melt or a solution, forming the fibers in the air due to a loss of solvent or freezing of the melt. Due to the applied high voltage, the solution or melt droplet on the spinneret will form a Taylor cone and when the electrical charges surpass the surface tension of the fluid, a polymeric jet is
ejected from this Taylor cone (Figure 1.3a).16,25 The 1 jet accelerates straight towards a target until the
repulsion of the jet surface charges causes the jet
to whip and form loops and coils.26,27 Due to these
whipping motions the fiber jet can be stretched up to 105 s-1, reducing the fiber diameter towards the nanometer range.28
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Figure 1.3 A selection of electrospinning setup schematics (a) basic needle to plate spinning, (b) spinning between parallel electrodes to produce aligned fibers,29 (c) spinning onto opposing charged fibers30 (d) spinning into a bath with vortex for yarn collection,31 (e) free surface electrospinning with surface disruption by air bubbles,32 (f) spinning from rotating wires,33 all schematics adapted from www.electospintech. com, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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