Pak Yong Ho, a researcher at the Nano Physics Engineering Institute, by using a polymer jet fluid model by CFD, has calculated the velocity field distribution in it to determine a uniform velocity profile and determined a new curved profile of the collector to obtain uniform fiber in an arched multi-nozzle electrospinning device.
Electrospinning is a method of producing micro fibres by injecting polymer solutions in electrostatic fields. Microfibers obtained by electrospinning have widely been applied in various fields, due to their superior properties such as very small diameter, high porosity, large specific surface area, etc.
Recently, highly productive electrospinning methods such as multi-nozzle electrospinning and nozzle-free electrospinning have been proposed. Multi-nozzle electrospinning is a method of overlapping many nozzles, so it is difficult to realize stable and continuous spinning as nonuniform distribution of electric fields at the nozzle tip creates corona discharge by strong electrical interaction between the nozzles.
Based on the calculation of the flow rate in angular jet flow through a CFD simulation of the jet flow in an electrostatic field, he determined the contour shape of the collector plate obtained by the uniform velocity plane. Then, he drew the curve equation of the curved collector which can obtain uniform diameter electrospun fiber in the multi-nozzle electrospinning system where an arched multi-nozzle and a curved collector are combined. After that, he found the curve equation of the curved collector to obtain uniform electrospun nanofiber with the diameter of 131.3nm, which is suitable for preparing a nanofiber ionexchange membrane for electrodialysis.
The curve equation of the collector profile for obtaining the electrospun nanofiber (131.3nm in diameter) in an arched multi-nozzle electrospining device is y=-2-12x3+0.002x2-2-8x-91.991.
It means that a new methodology to obtain uniform electrospun fibers with arbitrary diameters in a multi-nozzle electrospinning device without additional means was developed.
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