Journal of Materials Science, Vol.52, No.24, 14004-14010, 2017
Electrospinning of very long and highly aligned fibers
Previously unattainable success in electrospinning of very long and highly aligned fibers has been achieved using various parallel conducting collectors, e.g., the U-shape collectors that are negatively connected to high-voltage power supply. Unlike the electrically grounded for the conventional gap electrospinning, collector in the negative connection is of effectiveness and ease to guide the charged jet to span across a very large gap and thus to become aligned arrays over large areas. Results demonstrate that well-aligned fibers with length over half a meter can be obtained and the suspended fibers can be further non-destructively transferred to other substrates or structures for specific uses. This work is believed to provide a new insight into fabrication of ultra-long fibers, which should broaden the applications of electrospinning.