Strategies to improve the unconfined melt electrospinning process via incorporation of ionically conductive particles*

By utilizing a sharp-edged flat plate, multiple parallel jets can be electrospun spontaneously from unconfined polymer melts. In this work polyethylene was electrospun from a thin film of the polymer melt heated on an electrically-grounded flat plate. This technique can produce fibers with a throughput rate of about 50 mg/min without the possibility of clogging which frequently happens in traditional single needle electrospinning due to high viscosity of polymer melts. The effect of increased melt conductivity through salt additives on fiber diameter was studied to present a method for fabrication of smaller diameter fibers from highly- insulating polymer thermoplastics. Also, The environmental temperature, specifically in the spin-line shows to have a significant impact on the fiber diameter and the spinning process.