Needleless Electrospinning: Reciprocation vs. Rotation

Needleless electrospinning is a versatile method to produce nanofibers. In particular, the rotary version of this technique has enjoyed widespread use because there is no need to clean the spinneret. The rotation speed is limited by the potential deviation of the jet due to the centrifugal force. Other limitations are due to the fast volatilization of the solvent from the opened spinning system. In order to overcome these drawbacks, here a novel reciprocating system based on a moving spinning-plate is proposed. The spinning process is implemented in a half-closed system with the spinning-plate immersed in the solution tank. When the immersed spinning-plate moves up from the solution tank, multiple jets are ejected from the droplets on the tips of the spinning-plate under the effect of an electric field force. The morphology of the obtained nanofibers has been analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that the obtained fibers are uniform in structures and small in diameters. Both issues of needle clogging and intense solvent evaporation can be mitigated using this alternate approach.