Experimental investigation on flow modes of electrospinning

Electrospinning experiments are performed by using a set of experimental apparatus, a stroboscopic system is adopted for capturing instantaneous images of the conejet configuration. The cone and the jet of aqueous solutions of polyethylene oxide (PEO) are formed from an orifice of a capillary tube under the electric field. The viscoelastic constitutive relationship of the PEO solution is measured and discussed. The phenomena owing to the jet instability are described, five flow modes and corresponding structures are obtained with variations of the fluid flow rate Q, the electric potential U and the distance h from the orifice of the capillary tube to the collector. The flow modes of the cone-jet configuration involves the steady bending mode, the rotating bending mode, the swinging rotating mode, the blurring bending mode and the branching mode. Regimes in the Q-U plane of the flow modes are also obtained. These results may provide the fundamentals to predict the operating conditions expected in practical applications.