Air-Blowing-Assisted Coaxial Electrospinning toward High Productivity of Core/Sheath and Hollow Fibers

Coaxial electrospinning is an attractive technology to produce core/sheath and hollow fibers. However, until now, the relatively low productivity has limited its broad applications. In this work, coaxial electrospinning with air-blowing-assistance is applied to improve the productivity of core/sheath and hollow fibers. Different core and shell materials are used for this electrospinning. The flow rate and air-blowing rate during electrospinning are optimized. SEM and TEM are used to confirm the core/sheath and hollow structure of fibers. The results show that air-blowing-assisted electrospinning technology can be successfully applied for the large-scale production of core/sheath and hollow fibers which open the path to new applications of this promising class of materials.