Nanofiber formation in the presence of an external magnetic field in electrospinning

Abstract

Electrospinning is an efficient, versatile, and straightforward technique involving the fabrication of very thin fibers from a rich variety of materials. Despite several promising applications, the remaining problem with electrospinning is the unpredictable deposition of the nanofibers. In this study, a mathematical model for a novel magnetic electrospinning process was established on the basis of a set of equations. Then, the model was utilized to analyze the behavior of the created polymer jet numerically using the Runge-Kutta method. The jet was assumed to consist of a number of discrete charged particles connected by viscoelastic segments. The results showed that exerting an appropriate magnetic field (MF) could significantly decrease the radius and the instability of the whipping circles. After fixing the instability as far as possible, it was demonstrated that a properly applied perpendicular MF could largely adjust the target of the polymer jet on the collector.