Elettrospinner NANON-01 A

Electrospinning is an electro-hydrodynamic process, defined as one of the most promising technique in order to synthesize nanofiber mats.  In order to obtain final nanofiber mats, starting from the polymeric solution, loaded in a syringe, an electrical potential must be applied between the tip of a needle, which is defined as the first electrode, and the counter electrode, where dried nanofibers are collected.

As sketched in Figure 1 a), at the beginning of process, a polymeric drop, thanks to its surface tension, remains suspended at the tip of the needle. The applied electrical potential progressively increases and it induces a deformation of the drop, which assume a conical shape defined/known as Taylor cone. When the electrical potential overcomes the threshold value, a repulsive force, induced by charges distribution inside the polymeric drop, results to be higher than the surface tension of the drop, leading thus to eject a charged polymeric jet. Several instabilities, named bending instabilities, carry on during this process, inducing a continuous decrease of the diameter and, at the same time, the solvent evaporation, as represented in Figure 1 b).

Figure 1 a) representation of our electrospinning equipment @ Chilab; b) sketch of electrospinning process, describing how nanofiber mats can be synthetized; c) the occurred bending instabilities, which ensure the reduction of polymeric jet diameter to the nano- scale

Many application fields, based on electrospun polymer nanofibers, have been steadily extended especially in recent years, as represented in Figure 2.

Figure 2 All possible applications of electrospun nanofibers

Contacts

Giulia Massaglia - giulia.massaglia@polito.it

Marzia Quaglio - marzia.quaglio@polito.it

Collaborations

Center for Sustainable Future Technologies@Polito, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

References

G. Massaglia, M. Quaglio, “Semiconducting nanofibers in photoelectrochemistry”, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, 2017, 73, 13-21

G. Massaglia, M. Quaglio, “Development of new nanostructured electrode for electrochemical conversion: energy and fuel from environment”, book  Chapter in Electrospinning Method used to creating functional nanocomposites Films, IntechOpen, 2018

G. Massaglia, M. Quaglio, “Semiconducting Electrospun Nanofibers  for Energy Conversion”, book Chapter in "Semiconductors – Growth and Characterization,"  IntechOpen Limited,  2018