Design and research of supplying power for spinning emitter in needleless electrospinning with non-metallic rotating shaft

Abstract

Electrospinning is a widely used technique for nanofiber preparation at large scale that is mainly divided into two categories, namely, multi-needle and needleless categories. Among them, needleless electrospinning technologies are being in-depth researched and developed, because there is no needle blockage, electrostatic interference between the needles, and the yield is high. At present, the needless electrospinning devices with rotating shaft are applied widely. In order to supply power for the spinneret emitter conveniently, the metal shaft is used mostly and add electricity for it by brush. However, it not only weakens the utilization of electric energy, but also affects the intensity and the distribution of the electric field, and then affects the quality of the electrospinning. In this paper, a design of supplying power for spinneret emitter with a non-metallic rotating shaft was proposed, and the diameter formula of non-metallic rotating shaft under different electrospinning conditions was deduced. The intensity and distribution of the electric field of this design scheme is researched based on a fractal electrospinning head by the finite element analysis software COMSOL Multiphisics 5.0. At last, the electrospinning experiments were carried out by the electrospinning devices with non-metallic rotating shafts to prove the optimization effects.