Review on Electrospun Nanofiber-Applied Products

Electrospinning technology, which was previously known as a scientific interdisciplinary research approach, is now ready to move towards a practice-based interdisciplinary approach in a variety of fields, progressively. Electrospun nanofiber-applied products are made directly from a nonwoven fabric-based membranes prepared from polymeric liquids involving the application of sufficiently high voltages during electrospinning. Today, electrospun nanofiber-based materials are of remarkable interest across multiple fields of applications, such as in electronics, sensors, functional garments, sound proofing, filters, wound dressing and scaffolds. This article presents such a review for summarizing the current progress on the manufacturing scalability of electrospun nanofibers and the commercialization of electrospun nanofiber products by dedicated companies globally. Despite the clear potential and limitless possibilities for electrospun nanofiber applications, the uptake of electrospinning by the industry is still limited due to the challenges in the manufacturing and turning of electrospun nanofibers into physical products. The recent developments in the field of electrospinning, such as the prominent nonwoven technology, personal views and the potential path forward for the growth of commercially applied products based on electrospun nanofibers, are also highlighted.

Electrokinetics of polymeric fluids in narrow rectangular confinements

Flow of polymeric liquids in narrow confinements of rectangular cross section, in the presence of electrical double layers is analyzed here. Our analysis is motivated by the fact that many...

Diblock copolymer architecture and complex viscosity

General rigid bead-rod theory [O. Hassager, J. Chem. Phys. 60, 4001 (1974)] explains polymer viscoelasticity from macromolecular orientation. By means of general rigid bead-rod theory, we relate the complex viscosity of polymeric liquids to the architecture of axisymmetric macromolecules. In this paper, we explore the complex viscosities of different axisymmetric diblock copolymer configurations. When nondimensionalized with the zero-shear viscosity, the diblock copolymer complex viscosity depends on the dimensionless frequency and the sole dimensionless architectural parameter, the macromolecular lopsidedness. In this paper, through this way, we thus compare the dimensionless relaxation time of different diblock macromolecular chains. We explore the effects of linear density, macromolecular length, and bead number ratio.

Primitive chain network simulations for the interrupted shear response of entangled polymeric liquids

In slip-link simulations, the recovery of viscosity overshoot under interrupted shear flow reflects the relaxation of entanglement density during the interval between initial and resumed flows.