Bubble Melt Electrospinning for Production of Polymer Microfibers

In this paper, we report an interesting bubble melt electrospinning (e-spinning) to produce polymer microfibers. Usually, melt e-spinning for fabricating ultrafine fibers needs Taylor cone, which is formed on the tip of the spinneret. The spinneret is also the bottleneck for mass production in melt e-spinning. In this work, a metal needle-free method was tried in the melt e-spinning process. The Taylor cone was formed on the surface of the broken polymer melt bubble, which was produced by an airflow. With the applied voltage ranging from 18 to 25 kV, the heating temperature was about 210-250 degrees C, and polyurethane (TPU) and polylactic acid (PLA) microfibers were successfully fabricated by this new melt e-spinning technique. During the melt e-spinning process, polymer melt jets ejected from the burst bubbles could be observed with a high-speed camera. Then, polymer microfibers could be obtained on the grounded collector. The fiber diameter ranged from 45 down to 5 mu m. The results indicate that bubble melt e-spinning may be a promising method for needleless production in melt e-spinning.