Electrospinning 1 Electrostatic Spinning

Nanotechnology literally means any technology performed on a nanoscale that has applications in the real world [1]. The electrospinning electrostatic spinning) method and its products are principally related to nanotechnology. The diameters of electrospun fibers are usually from several nanometers up to a few microns, but they are typically in the submicron range. These fibers are called nanofibers in the literature [38] because they have unique properties compared to microfibers. 

The first documented accounts of electrostatic spinning of a polymer solution into nanofibers were described in 1902 by J. F. Cooley and by W. J. Morton (see Table 1.2). Figure 1.1 shows Cooley s diagram of the electrospinning equipment as it appears in his 1902 U.S. patent 692,631 (note that the... 

The electrostatic spinning, or electrospinning, process includes different, sequential stages, which are described in the following. 

Electrospinning is a versatile technique with a variety of finely tunable parameters to achieve desired material, chemical, and mechanical properties of a nonwoven nano- or microfibrous mesh (Fig. 10.2). This common term has been developed from the early description electrostatic spinning, and has been widely studied and used in both academic and industrial settings (Park, 2010). Electrospinning provides a means for synthesizing a network of elongated one-dimensional nanostructures, which mimics the native nanoscale ECM present in AC. 

The technology to produce synthetic filaments with the aid of electrostatic forces has been utilised for over a hundred years. This process is called electrospinning that was initially derived from electrostatic spinning and developed from the electrospraying method. This fundamental technique was observed by Rayleigh [6] in 1897, which was followed by Morton [21] and Cooley [22] that patented methods to disperse fluids using electrostatic forces. In 1914, Zeleny [23] reported the behaviour of conductive liquid droplets at the end of metallic mbes in the presence of an electrostatic force. Further developments were made by Formhals [6, 24] for the fabrication of textile yams and described in a sequence of patents from 1934 to 1944. After that, the focus shifted to developing a better... 

Fig. 11.2 a The top 15 subject areas that use electrospinning or nanofibies and b the total number of officially published document from 1970 to 2015 by categorizing them into countries of origin. (Retrieved on 14th of April 2015, Scopus. Keywords electrospinning OR electrospun OR electrostatic spinning OR nanofiber OR nanofibre OR nanofibrous OR all)... 

Other studies in 2000 by Drew et al. reported that it is very difficult to spin fibers of PANI complexed to sulfonated polystyrene (PANFSPS), even when solutions containing sodium chloride and dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid sodium salt were used to lower the surface tension and thereby enhance electrospinning [16,17]. However, PANFSPS nanofibers can be produced by adding a carrier polymer such as PEO, polyacrylonitrile, or polyurethane. Also reported was the use of electrostatically layered sulfonated polystyrene as a template for the surface polymerization of conjugated polymers in their conducting form. Enzymatic synthesis of PANI and a copolymer of pyrrole and PEDOT was done on electrospun nanofiber... 

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