Functional Self-Assembled Nanofibers by Electrospinning

A. Greiner¹ and J. H. Wendorff¹

(1)	Department of Chemistry and Center of Material Science, Philipps-University, 35032 Marburg, Germany

Abstract Electrospinning constitutes a unique technique for the production of nanofibers
with diameters down to the range of a few nanometers. In strong contrast to conventional
fiber producing techniques, it relies on self-assembly processes driven by the Coulomb interactions
between charged elements of the fluids to be spun to nanofibers. The transition
from a macroscopic fluid object such as a droplet emerging from a die to solid nanofibers
is controlled by a set of complex physical instability processes. They give rise to extremely
high extensional deformations and strain rates during fiber formation causing among
others a high orientational order in the nanofibers as well as enhanced mechanical properties.
Electrospinning is predominantly applied to polymer based materials including
natural and synthetic polymers, but, more recently, its use has been extended towards
the production of metal, ceramic and glass nanofibers exploiting precursor routes. The
nanofibers can be functionalized during electrospinning by introducing pores, fractal
surfaces, by incorporating functional elements such as catalysts, quantum dots, drugs,
enzymes or even bacteria. The production of individual fibers, random nonwovens, or
orientationally highly ordered nonwovens is achieved by an appropriate selection of electrode
configurations. Broad areas of application exist in Material and Life Sciences for
such nanofibers, including not only optoelectronics, sensorics, catalysis, textiles, high efficiency
filters, fiber reinforcement but also tissue engineering, drug delivery, and wound
healing. The basic electrospinning process has more recently been extended towards compound
co-electrospinning and precision deposition electrospinning to further broaden
accessible fiber architectures and potential areas of application.
Keywords Co-electrospinning · Electrospinning · Fiber architectures · Functions and applications · Nanofibers · Nonwovens · Precision electrospinning



Paper Reference: http://www.springerlink.com/content/v80076257623ul64/fulltext.pdf