A nonlinear system model for electrospinning sub-100 nm polyacrylonitrile fibres

Solutions of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were electrospun using a range of process parameters, resulting in fibre diameters from 10 to 320 nm. A nonlinear neural network system model was used to analyse the dependence of the fibre diameter on the process parameters, and used to simulate conditions for electrospinning 40-60 nm diameter fibres. These results indicated that flow rate is most important for determining fibre diameter. It was not possible to find the appropriate conditions for electrospinning sub-25 nm fibres. Precise control of the ambient temperature and relative humidity will be critical to producing electrospun fibres that are sub-25 nm. Further, it is unlikely that sub-25 nm fibres will be produced without significant changes in the electrospinning apparatus, for example, by use of focusing and jet-steering fields, alternate carrier gases to modify the discharge characteristics, or patterned electrospinning.