Multispinneret Methodologies for High Throughput Electrospun Nanofiber

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MULTISPINNERET METHODOLOGIES FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT ELECTROSPUN NANOFIBER Jeremy Bowman, Malcolm Taylor, Vikram Sharma, Anne Lynch, Suneet Chadha Foster-Miller, Inc. 195 Bear Hill Road Waltham, MA 02451 Abstract The overall objective of the Electrospinning program at Foster-Miller is to develop a semiautomated, pilot scale machinery capable of producing nanofiber membranes at reasonable scales so that they can be evaluated for a wide range of military and commercial applications. This paper discusses the development of a high throughput electrospinning process

Introduction Electrospinning of polymer solutions or melts under electrical fields is capable of producing nanofiber mats with exceptionally high surface area. The past several years there has been a significant effort to model such phenomenon as well as to demonstrate potential benefits for surface modification, filtration, control release and biocompatible substrates. These nanofiber membranes provide a highly efficient means for incorporating both passive and reactive chemical or enzymatic functionality for the above applications. Such nanofiber membranes could be used in layered form within a clothing ensemble and provide breathable, lightweight, highly effective biocidic protection. Unfortunately translating the numerous research efforts into real capabilities is presently constrained by the shear low throughput, process instabilities and requirements for solvent recovery systems. Efforts at Foster Miller have focused on the development of a semi-automated, pilot electrospinning machinery capable of producing nanofiber membranes at reasonable scales. This will require the development of an enhanced understanding of the nanofiber spinning process; determining the sensitive of the spinning process to process variations such as polymer/solvent solution characteristics and concentration, environmental conditions, feed rate, and emitter target geometries. In this paper we will discuss some of our results in identifying appropriate target materials, and process conditions to enable enhanced deposition rates of electrospun nanofiber mats. Modular Electrospinning Apparatus Foster-Miller has designed and built a computer-controlled, bench top prototype for automated fabrication of nanofiber webs. A photograph of the apparatus in Figure 1 shows the test setup for ES membranes. The setup is modular such that the target substrate, spinneret configuration, rate of polymer flow and target speed can be varied and computer controlled. The target fabric is wrapped over a Cu mesh belt has been grounded. The belt moves slowly to ensure even distribution of the nanofiber mat over the length of the fabric. The spinneret configuration has been designed to enable it to traverse along the x-axis to ensure even nanofiber distribution over the width of the fabric.

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Figure 1. Modular electrospinning membrane manufacture setup. Most reports of electrospun membranes in the literature use a fixed conductive target to deposit ES fibers. The inherent fragility of such m

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