An improved tip-less electrospinning with strip-distributed solution delivery for massive production of uniform polymer nanofibers

An improved tip-less electrospinning is applied to massive production of high-quality nanofibers by utilizing a strip-distributed solution delivery method. Polyethylene oxide solution coats a metal cylinder and is distributed in several separate annular subareas. These narrow polymer strip coatings confine Taylor-cone location and regularize the electric field in longitudinal direction. This positional confinement results in uniform nanofibers and reduces irregular bead-on-string structure. Furthermore, narrowed strip coatings intensify the local electric filed on each strip coating surface in radial direction and resultantly lower the critical voltage for electrospinning. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.