Electrospun Nanofiber Yarn

Electrospinning creates an electrically charged jet of polymer solution or melt, which elongates dries and solidifies to give very long fibers with nanometer-scale diameters [1]. The yarn manufacturing method [2,3] involves collecting the electrically charged fibers between two parallel and electrically grounded collector surfaces separated by a distance commensurate with the diameter of the loops formed by the electrically driven bending instability [1]. One of the collector surfaces is rotated around its axis at an appropriate rate to twist the fibers into a nanofiber yarn. The yarn was extended, for example by translating the other collector away from the rotating collector. Properties such as yarn diameter, fiber count, and twist per unit length were controlled by changing the rotation rate of the disk. It appears that yarns of nanofibers can be produced from all polymer solutions that can be electrospun. \newline \newline References: \newline [1] Reneker, D.H.; Yarin, A.L.; Fong, H. Koombhongse, S. \textit{J. App. Phys.} 87, 2000, 4531. \newline [2] Dalton, P. D.; Klee, D.; M\"{o}ller, M. \textit{Polymer} 46(3), 2005, 611. \newline [3] Dzenis, Y. \textit{Private communication}.