Synthesis Of Nanofibres Using Electrospinning

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Synthesis of Nanofibres using Electrospinning Kritika Kashyap Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, IIT Kanpur. Abstract Electrospinning allows for easy creation of nano- to micro-fibers that can be collected and used to fabricate novel structures for applications in tissue engineering scaffolds, clothing, drug delivery vehicles, and filtration media. In this experiment we synthesise polystyrene fibres and study the effect of change in system parameters on the morphology of the fibres. Introduction Nanofibres, or fibres having a diameter range in nanometers, have huge surface area to volume ratio and have the potential to significantly improve current technology. Nanofibres find application in tissue scaffolds (1), protective clothing, filtration and nano-electronics (2). Electrospinning produces continuous fibres of submicron and nanometer diameter. This nonmechanical, electrostatic technique involves the use of a high voltage electrostatic field that is applied between a droplet of polymer solution and a grounded target. When the applied electric field overcomes the surface tension of the droplet, a charged jet of polymer solution is ejected. The jet exhibits bending instabilities caused by repulsive forces between the charges carried with the jet. The solvent gradually evaporates, and a charged polymer fiber accumulates on the grounded target. The factors affecting polymer fibres formed are polymer solution concentration, applied voltage, electrospinning distance, needle gauge etc. Materials and Methods Electrospinning set-up: A high voltage power supply (up to 30 kV), a syringe, a flat tip needle and a conducting collector plate. Polymer solution: 2ml 15% Polystyrene solution in 3:1 ratio of THF and DMF. The solution was poured in the syringe The voltage between the electrodes was set and was allowed to fall under gravity. We studied

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