High-throughput production of nanofibrous mats via a porous materials electrospinning process

A facile method is presented for the electrospinning of multiple polymer jets into nanofibers. The experiments in this study electrified 7 wt% polyethylene oxide (PEO) and 10 wt% poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) solutions and adopted porous materials (bars with various dimensions) to enhance the productivity of the electrospinning process. The proposed electrospinning mechanism can be used to mass produce nanofibers at a relatively lower voltage (D.C. 6∼7 kV) and obtain a remarkable increase in throughput. The experimental results showed that the jets per area were on the order of 0.85∼1.5 jets/mm ², which is one to two orders of magnitude higher than the conventional single needle electrospinning process and can easily surpass the magnetic needleless method by a factor of 3.3-5.8. The proposed method of using porous materials as electrospinning devices (nozzles) should contribute to the advancement of next-generation, large-scale electrospinning systems for nanofiber fabrication.