Summary
This work introduces an optical method for following the electrospinning process as it happens, addressing the difficulty of keeping fibre quality reproducible from run to run. An optical fibre is threaded through the inner channel of a coaxial needle while the polymer solution (PEO in water) is fed through the outer one: light leaving the fibre crosses the droplet at the needle tip and couples into the jet as it travels towards the collector. Numerical and analytical models were built to establish whether the coupling was feasible and robust, and experiments then showed how the process parameters govern both the waveguide length of the electrospun fibre and the diameter distribution of the resulting nanofibres. The approach turns the jet itself into a sensing element, opening the way to closed-loop monitoring of soft polymeric nanofibre production.
Authors & Affiliations
Dario Lunni
Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pontedera, Italy
Goffredo Giordano
Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pontedera, Italy
Francesca Pignatelli
Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pontedera, Italy
Carlo Filippeschi
Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pontedera, Italy
Stefano Linari
Edoardo Sinibaldi Corresponding
Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pontedera, Italy
Barbara Mazzolai Corresponding
Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Pontedera, Italy
Linari Electrospinning Systems
RT Advanced with coaxial needles
The study was carried out on an RT Advanced system (Linari Engineering S.r.l., Pisa, Italy) using
coaxial needles, which made it possible to feed the optical fibre through the inner channel while spinning the solution from the outer one. Linari Engineering is a co-author of this publication.
Topics
Process Monitoring
Coaxial Electrospinning
Optical Waveguides
Fiber Diameter Control
Materials
Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)
Optical fiber
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