80 years of electrospinning

Electrospinning is a relatively simple fibre-forming process and offers a unique method to produce nanofibers. The process exists at this moment 80 years and has seen a very turbulent history. There is a need to see what actually happened in this history. We have taken a brief look in the history of electrospinning. This paper is reporting on some of the aspects that electrospinning encountered. It is crucial to see that electrospinning has been used in different countries in different time periods. The history of electrospinning is mainly characterised by bad timing. The future of electrospinning looks however quit bright

Wicking properties of polyamide nanofibrous structures

The hydrophilicity of nanofibrous structures is a key characteristic for many applications. However due to the high porosity of the structures, it is difficult to measure this property with contact angle measurements. Therefore a characterisation through wicking behaviour is more appropriate. The ISO-norm on wicking behaviour needs some refining to account for the specific nature of the highly porous nanofibrous structures. This refined method is used on polyamide 6 nanofibrous structures with different diameters and on polyamide 6 nanofibres with an incorporated hydrophilic compound. It was found that the fibre diameter is the major characteristic which influences the wicking behaviour

Influence of the polyamide type and fibre diameter on the wicking height in nanofibrous structures

Due to the high porosity of nanofibrous structures, it is difficult to measure the hydrofilicity of the material with contact angle measurements. Therefore, a new method to examine the wicking behaviour of the structures is developed. This method is used on several structures, which differ in fibre diameter and polyamide type. The structures with the thickest nanofibres have the highest wicking rates. For different polyamide types, the capillary forces establish the wicking behaviour in the initial phase. Further in the process, it is determined by the capillary forces and the water absorption capacity of the bulk phase

Electrospinning: the road to a new class of materials?

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