Spinneret with a helical coil to produce nanofibers using a viscous fluid in an electric field

摘要

A spinneret (14) for producing nano-fibres from a viscous liquid using electrostatic spinning in an electric field is disclosed. The spinneret includes one or more narrow annular bodies radially centred about and axially spaced along a central axis. The annular bodies may be discs, rings, or coils. Shown is an electro-spinning apparatus (10) using the disclosed spinneret. The apparatus includes a charged electrode (12) which includes a rotatable tubular helical coil spinneret (14), a rotatable tubular counter electrode (16), a bath (18) containing a polymer solution (20) and a high voltage power supply power supply (22) connected between the charged electrode and counter electrode. The counter electrode comprises a metallic drum positioned above and lengthwise parallel with the spinneret 14. While not shown, the rotation of each of the spinneret 1and the counter electrode is driven by a drive means such as an electric motor which rotates each of the spinneret and the counter electrode at 40rpm. The nano-fibres produced by the apparatus are much thinner and have a narrowed diameter distribution as compared to those produced by conventional needle electro-spinning.