Electrospun fibre bundle made of aligned nanofibres over two fixed points

Abstract

Despite recent advances in electrospinning, creating highly ordered structure through the use of electrospun fibres is not possible. This is due to the chaotic motion of the electrospinning jet which means that the deposition location of the fibres covers a few centimetres radius. As a result, applications for electrospun fibres are restricted to applications where precise positioning is not required. However, through the use of steel blades to control the electric field, it is now possible to create a fibre bundle made of highly aligned nanofibres where the ends of the fibre bundle are fixed during electrospinning. The creation of highly ordered structures made of electrospun fibre bundles is now possible since the fibre bundle is robust enough to be handled, and it is also easy to transfer the fibre bundle onto a substrate. More importantly, with the two ends of the fibre bundle known, automating the transfer of the fibre bundle onto a substrate is a possibility. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.