Both polymer melts and polymer solutions can be spun for electrospinning. For the necessary draft to the fiber, the melt or solution is exposed to an electric field in the air gap and accelerated and stretched by this field. The deposition takes place, for example, on a further nonwoven which is attached in front of the oppositely conductive electrode.
In the case of solutions, the solvent, which is usually volatile, is evaporated in the air gap. The result is a nonwoven coated with fibers of very thin diameters. Depending on the conditions (e.g. polymer, solvent, concentration, additives), fibers from the lower micrometer to the nanometer range can also be obtained.
Technical Equipment:
- Nanospider laboratory plant Elmarco (semi-technical scale)
- Small jet electrospinning plant (working temperature up to 220 °C)
More Information
Literature:
Katrin Römhild, Cornelia Wiegand, Ute Hipler, Thomas Heinze (2013)
Novel bioactive amino-functionalized cellulose nanofibers, Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 34(22), 1767-1771.
Katrin Römhild , Frank Niemz, Tamilselvan Mohan, Silvo Hribernik, Manja Kurecic, Christian Ganser, Christian Teichert, Stefan Spirk (2016)
The Cellulose Source Matters—Hollow Semi Spheres or Fibers by Needleless Electrospinning, Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, 301(1), 42-47.
Research projects
Niemz, Dr. F.-G. (2006): Elaboration of basic principles for the development of a lyocell electrospinning process by modifying the ALCERU technology (TMWAI2002WF0278/TV2).