Electrospinning of polymer nanofibers with ordered patterns and architectures

Nanofibers with ordered patterns and architectures are critically important for many applications, including nanoscale device fabrication and tissue regenerations. During electrospinning process, the charge on a depositing nanofiber will become constant after the volatilization of solvent complete, which happens when the nanofibers get close to a collector that usually has a certain distance from the spinneret. In this case, the component forces acting on the depositing nanofibers that are arriving to a collector surfaces can be relatively analyzed based on the simulation results of the electrical field distribution on the collector. By using finite element method (FEM), in this study, the nanofiber deposition behavior including the orientation and alignment of nanofibers that are approaching to a collector were simulated and systematically investigated in term of the effects of electrostatic field applied to the collector. Based on the simulation results, we have experimentally demonstrated that Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) nanofibers with various desired patterns and ordered architectures were prepared using predesigned collectors.