Controlling the Architecture of Nanofiber-Coated Microfibers Using Electrospinning
Journal article, 2010

This study shows that electrospinning nanofibers onto single microfibers allows for careful tailoring of material properties that may suit a wide variety of applications. The nanofiber-coated microfibers are created by electrospinning nanofibers alongside a microfiber toward a collector that rotates around the microfiber. This force the nanofibers to be collected around the microfiber, creating a hierarchical structure that can be modified at nano scale. In this study, control of nanofiber diameters, nanofiber alignment, and nanofiber loading was evaluated. It was seen that varying polymer concentration affected the nanofiber diameters, collecting the nanofiber-coated microfibers at different speeds changed the degree of alignment of the nanofibers and that changing the polymer feeding rate affected the loading density of the nanofibers collected. The carefully designed nanofiber-coated microfibers have great potential in creation of highly porous materials with tailored properties down to nano scale.

nano-fiber

polymer nanofibers

surfaces

electrospinning

biomaterials

biopolymers

cell

scaffolds

nanofibers

Author

Anna Thorvaldsson

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

J. Engstrom

Swerea

Paul Gatenholm

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Pernilla Walkenström

Swerea

Journal of Applied Polymer Science

0021-8995 (ISSN) 1097-4628 (eISSN)

Vol. 118 1 511-517

Subject Categories

Chemical Sciences

DOI

10.1002/app.32366

More information

Latest update

2/28/2018