An example of industrialization of melt electrospinning: Polymer melt differential electrospinning

Abstract

In recent years, researchers are paying more attention to high efficiency, high process stability and eco-friendly nanofiber fabrication techniques. Among all of the nanofiber fabrication methods, electrospinning including solution electrospinning and melt electrospinning is the most promising method for nanofiber mass production. Compared to solution electrospinning, melt electrospinning could be applied in many areas such as tissue engineering and wound dressings due to the absence of any toxic solvent involvement. Capillary melt electrospinning generates only one jet with low efficiency. Hence, we have proposed polymer melt differential electrospinning (PMDES) method, which could produce multiple jets with smallest interjet distance of 1.1 mm from an umbrella shape spinneret, thus improving the production efficiency significantly. Many techniques such as material modification, suction wind, and multistage electric field were proposed to refine the fibers and nanofibers with average diameter of about 300 nm were obtained. Scale up production line of PMDES with capacity of 300–600 g/h was established by arraying umbrella shape spinnerets. PMDES is a promising technology to meet the requirements of nanofiber production in commercialization. Keywords: Nanofiber, Electrospinning, Melt electrospinning, Polymer melt differential electrospinning (PMDES)