Manipulation of the electric field of electrospinning system to produce polyacrylonitrile nanofiber yarn

Electrospinning is a process that produces nanofiber through the action of an external electric field imposed on a polymer solution or melt. This paper introduces a new system capable of producing continuous uniaxially aligned PAN nanofiber yarn by manipulating the electric field. The manipulation was carried out by employing a negative charged bar in the electric field of conventional electrospinning system, leading to the formation of an electrostatic multipolar field. As a result, the main stream was redirected towards a rotating take up unit, collecting the twisted yarn consisting of uniaxially aligned nanofibers. The yarns were then treated in boiling water under tension and their mechanical properties were compared with those of the untreated ones.