Rotary jet spinning review – a potential high yield future for polymer nanofibers

Abstract

Polymeric nanofibers have been the focus of much research due to their continually evolving applications in fields such as biomedicine, tissue engineering, composites, filtration, battery separators, and energy storage. Although several methods of producing nanofibers have shown promise for large scale production, none have yet produced large enough volumes at a low cost to be the front runner in the field, and therefore the preferred choice for industrialization. Rotary jet spinning (RJS) could be the answer to high throughput, low cost, and environmentally friendly nanofiber production. Being exploited in only the last decade, it is a technology that has seen relatively little research, but one which could potentially be the answer to large scale manufacturing of polymer nanofibers. In this review, we focus on fundamental processing characteristics and initial application driven research. A comparison between existing nanofiber production methods is drawn with the key differences noted. Two methods of utilizing RJS in nanofiber production are discussed, namely spinning from a polymer melt, and solution-based spinning as is typically used in more traditional methods such as electrospinning. Modeling of the process is introduced, in which material selection and processing parameters play an important role.

Keywords

• Polymer nanofibers
• Rotary jet spinning
• Electrospinning
• Processing
• Properties
• Applications
• Modeling