Principle and equipment of polymer melt differential electrospinning preparing ultrafine fiber

Abstract

Two methods preparing polymer ultrafine fiber have been developed: solution electrospinning and melt electrospinning, among which, solution electrospinning is much simpler to realize in lab or industry. More than 100 institutions have made endeavors to research it and more than 30 thousand papers have been published. However, its industrialization was restricted in some extend because of existence of toxic solvent and low strength caused by small pores. Solventless melt electrospinning is environment friendly, but high melt viscosity, thick fiber diameter, low yield and complex equipment lead to less research on it. Aiming to solving the shortage of traditional needle nozzle equipment, we first proposed a melt differential electrospinning method preparing ultrafine fiber, through which fiber smaller than imicrometer can be produced and a yield of 10-20g/h can be achieved by a needleless nozzle. Further more, principle and equipment of melt differential electrospinning are introduced.