Electrospun nanofibers: from filtration membranes to highly specialized tissue engineering scaffolds

Electrospinning is a widely used technique to produce continuous polymeric fibers ranging from 2 nm to several micrometers. This technique is not only employed in research laboratories, but it is also increasingly being applied in different industrial fields in the last few decades as a highly versatile and cost-effective technology. Compared to conventional techniques for fiber fabrication, electrospinning can fabricate fibers in a more desirable size (e.g., nanoscale). Nanofibers are generated by the application of a strong electric field on polymer solution. Over the years, more than 200 polymers have been electrospun for various applications. In this review, our aim was to present an overview of the electrospinning technique and its potential applications. We covered the basic principles of the electrospinning technique and parameters which significantly affect the fiber morphology. The most recent work on electrospinning nanofibers for blending polymers, filtration, energy, sensing and biomedical applications was also presented in this review.