OPTIMIZATION DESIGN OF A MULTI-STRING STANDING WAVE ELECTROSPINNING APPARATUS BASED ON ELECTRIC FIELD SIMULATIONS

Abstract

THE MASS PRODUCTION OF UNIFORM, HIGH-QUALITY POLYMER NANOFIBERS REMAINS A CHALLENGE. TO ENHANCE SPINNING YIELD, A MULTI-STRING STANDING WAVE ELECTROSPINNING APPARATUS WAS DEVELOPED BY INCORPORATING A STRING ARRAY INTO A STANDING WAVE ELECTROSPINNING DEVICE. THE PROCESS PARAMETERS SUCH AS STRING SPACING, QUANTITY, AND PHASE DIFFERENCE WERE OPTIMIZED, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE ELECTRIC FIELD DISTRIBUTION WITHIN THE SPINNING AREA WERE ANALYZED USING ELECTRIC FIELD SIMULATIONS. WHEN THE STRING SPACING WAS LESS THAN 40 MM OR THE NUMBER OF STRINGS EXCEEDED TWO, THE ELECTRIC FIELD STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASED DUE TO ELECTRIC FIELD INTERFERENCE. HOWEVER, THIS INTERFERENCE COULD BE EFFECTIVELY MITIGATED BY SETTING THE STRING STANDING WAVE PHASE DIFFERENCE TO HALF A PERIOD. THE OPTIMAL STRING ARRAY PARAMETERS WERE IDENTIFIED AS STRING SPACING OF 40 MM, TWO STRINGS, AND A PHASE DIFFERENCE OF HALF A PERIOD. MULTI-STRING STANDING WAVE ELECTROSPINNING PRODUCED FIBERS WITH DIAMETERS SIMILAR TO THOSE OBTAINED WITH SINGLE-STRING STANDING WAVE ELECTROSPINNING (178 ± 72 NM VS. 173 ± 48 NM), BUT THE YIELD INCREASED BY 88.7%, REACHING 2.17 G/H, THEREBY DEMONSTRATING THE POTENTIAL FOR THE LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION OF NANOFIBERS. THIS WORK FURTHER REFINED THE STANDING WAVE ELECTROSPINNING PROCESS AND PROVIDED VALUABLE INSIGHTS FOR OPTIMIZING WIRE-TYPE ELECTROSPINNING PROCESSES.