Fabrication of nanofibers with ultrahigh production by a facile high pressure air-jet atomized electrospinning

A novel method named as high pressure air-jet atomized electrospinning was proposed to prepare nanofibers with ultrahigh production. The spinning solution with lower concentration and viscosity was cutted into micron-sized droplets by a 700 mesh filter in the front of nozzle and then was crushed and atomized into massive smaller droplets, which were drawn into nanofibers directly under the electric force and airflow force. Flow field under different air pressure was simulated to study its effect on the formation of nanofibers. The airflow showed the minimum pressure and maximum velocity at a location 2 cm away from the spray nozzle, where small droplets cutted were crushed and atomized into massive smaller droplets by the converging airflow. The velocity and distribution region of the airflow increased with increasing air pressure. It showed a smaller diameter of 150 nm and ultrahigh production of 75.6 g/h for nanofibers prepared based on this novel method at the air pressure of 0.8 MPa. The production of nanofibers almost reached thousands of times of that from conventional needle electrospinning.