| Electrospinning is a process that produces nano sized fibers. It accomplishes this by using an electrostatically driven polymer jet, which thins as it whips towards a grounded target. The fibers produced from electrospinning are collected in the form of a random mat. This disordered structure greatly limits their application in areas that require well aligned, highly ordered arrangements. The challenge is to obtain controllable nanofibers that can be guided and deposited onto devices. Having this capability would open up new areas of commercial and scientific development.; The current electrospinning techniques used for producing aligned fibers include; rotating drum take-up units, angled frame collectors, and insulating void gaps between electrodes. Controlling the fibers through use of an auxiliary electric field will achieve alignment also. The auxiliary field is obtained by constructing templates with three conductive lines and applying voltages to them. The magnitude of the electric field is affected by the void gap distance, the voltage applied to the target, the needle to target distance, and the conductivity of the solution being spun. Increasing the voltage and the conductivity increases the electrostatic force. Increasing the void gap and the needle to target distance decreases the electrostatic force and hinders the assembly of aligned nanofibers. The auxiliary electric field approach can be used for application requiring the alignment of nanofibers. |
