Novel Nanoscale Materials from Electrospinning of Natural and Synthetic Polymers

Nelly N. Mateeva

Florida A&M University

Electrospinning is a method that utilizes high electrostatic forces for the production of continuous fibers from nano to micron-size from polymers in solution or in the melt state. Many natural and synthetic polymers have been electrospun resulting in materials with unique properties of interest in applied science, technology, and biomedical engineering. Although the process is reproducible, the large number of parameters that need to be adjusted often complicates the experimental design. The vast majority of published work concentrates on the properties of the resulting fibers while conclusions are often based on empirical analysis.

Current technology needs to promote new revolutionary fibers and textiles and develop highly aligned electrospun fibers and mats – which is not possible without knowing the mechanism of the formation of three-dimensional microstructures.

Certain polymers can be electrospun under a wide range of experimental conditions; however natural polymers, such as proteins, peptides, and DNA, are notoriously difficult to process. For reasons that are not fully understood, electrospinning of proteins very rarely produces extended nanofiber morphologies. The protein structure is ruled by numerous non-covalent interactions, such as van der Waals forces, hydrogen bonds, and hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions. Conformational adaptations are a result of re-arrangement and re-direction of the attractive and repulsive forces and each one of them is accompanied by the corresponding enthalpy and entropy changes. Another key factor is the self-assembly of the macromolecules. Electrospun nanofibers are usually deposited in a non-structured, randomly oriented substrate. Self-assembly, however, is an intrinsic property of components of all dimensions if placed in an appropriate environment.

This presentation will discuss the current results in studying of the electrospinning process, the development of novel fiber-based materials, and the electrospinning technique.