Coupled Electrospinning of Continuous Poly (vinylidenefluoride-co-hexafluoropropy-lene) Nanofiber Yarns

摘要

Electrospinning, a simple and versatile technique, has been popularly recognized as an efficient way to fabricate polymer nanofibers. However, nanofibers are often obtained as non-woven mats. In order to extend their application in fabric industry, nanofibers need to be obtained as aligned and continuous yarns. A few attempts have been reported to improve alignment of electrospun nanofibers by mechanical and electrostatic means. Fennessey S.F. et al. showed that electrospun fibers could be aligned more or less parallel to each other when a drum rotating at high speed was used as the collector. Another method developed by Smit E. et al. was to deposit nanofibers into water to eliminate the charges of the charged nanofibers which were collected together, and yarns were obtained with nanofibers aligned. Recently, we developed a versatile method of coupled electrospinning using spinnerets in pairs connected with two high electrical voltages of opposite polarities respectively, which could fabricate continuous yarns from oppositely charged electrospun nanofibers.