An investigation of bending and branching in electrospinning of polymer nanofibers

The interaction of fluids with electricity is the subject of immense interest among researchers for centuries owing to its broad range of industrial applications including the production of nanofibers. Electrospinning is an electrohydrodynamical phenomena produced polymer nanofibers with the cross-sectional diameter in the range of nanometers to a few microns. The process of bending, stretching and extensive thinning of the jet induced by the electrical forces leads its path and shape to become more complex, which ultimately converted into solid fibers after evaporation of the solvent. The electrospinning experiments are carried out using two ultra-high imaging cameras with the frame rate up to 200,000 fps. Particular attention is paid to the electrically driven bending instability and the emanation of multiple branching of the primary and secondary jets. The results obtained using high-frame rate videography provide new insights into the evolution of electrified jets of polymer solutions. A theoretical description of the bending and branching phenomena is also proposed in this work.