Dynamic Stabilization of Electro-Spinning Process for Production of Inflatable Drug-Delivery Stents

静电纺丝，首次发现于20世纪30年代末，是一种多功能的方法，可以从聚合物溶液中产生直径从几纳米到几微米的超细纤维。目前，静电纺丝是在纳米尺度上制造连续纤维的唯一方法。静电纺丝的主要应用领域之一是组织工程，其中静电纺丝纳米纤维用于生产组织和器官模板。尽管它能够生产非常细的纤维，但作为制造技术的静电纺丝过程控制得很差。负责拉伸纤维的相同的力也在产生不期望的不稳定性中起作用，导致随机的纤维分布和对所生产的纤维的位置的不良控制。 该奖项支持基础研究，为可控纳米纤维沉积工艺的开发提供所需的知识。该项目的动态稳定方法将使编织聚合物支架的制造能够用于组织工程和生产新的可生物降解的药物输送支架。因此，这项研究的结果将有利于美国经济，并将导致先进治疗设备的发展。这项研究包含一个推广计划，使用类似的方法，旨在激励来自弱势社区和代表性不足的少数民族的儿童追求STEM事业。更具体地说，这项研究将探索动态稳定和静电聚焦作为控制静电纺丝纤维沉积的新手段。这是第一次，它将研究在保罗型线性离子阱内聚焦带电细丝的可行性。尽管线性离子阱在质谱中被广泛使用，但它们从未被用于捕获宏观离子，例如电纺聚合物纤维。使用Floquet分析，该研究将从理论上研究捕获带电纤维的可行性，并将建立所需的捕获参数。基于动态稳定的静电纺丝过程的闭环控制也计划。

Electrospinning, first discovered in the late 1930s, is a versatile method to create ultra-fine fibers from polymer solutions with diameters ranging from a few nanometers to several micrometers. Currently, electrospinning is the only method for the fabrication of continuous fibers at the nanometer scale. One of the main application areas of electrospinning is tissue engineering, where electro-spun nano-fibers are used to produce tissue and organ templates. Despite its ability to produce very fine fibers, the electrospinning process as a manufacturing technique is poorly controlled. The very same forces responsible for drawing the fibers are also at play in generating an undesirable instability, leading to random fiber distribution and poor control over the location of the produced fibers. This award supports fundamental research to provide knowledge required for the development of a controlled nano-fiber deposition process. This project's dynamic stabilization approach will enable the manufacturing of woven polymeric stents that can be used in tissue engineering and in the production of new biodegradable drug-delivery stents. Therefore, results from this research will benefit the U.S. economy, and will lead to the development of advanced therapeutic devices. This research contains an outreach program using an analog of the approach aimed at motivating children from disadvantaged communities and underrepresented minorities to pursue STEM careers.More specifically, this research will explore dynamic stabilization and electrostatic focusing as a new means to control the deposition of electrospun fibers. For the first time, it will examine the feasibility of focusing charged filaments inside a Paul-type linear ionic trap. Despite their widespread use in mass spectroscopy, linear ionic traps have never been used to trap macroscopic ions such as electrospun polymeric fibers. Using Floquet analysis, the research will examine theoretically the feasibility of trapping charged fibers and will establish the required trapping parameters. A closed-loop control of the electrospinning process based on the dynamic stabilization is also planned.