A Mechanistic Understanding of the Process-Property Relationships in an Alternative Electrospinning Process

该奖项的研究目标是实现电纺丝的范式转变，从起源于针头上悬浮的液滴的纤维生长，转变为从带电平板上的大量液滴生长，以显著提高质量产量。此外，这种方法可以通过控制平板表面的设计(包括界面张力和表面结构)来制造更小直径(~50 nm)的纤维。具体地说，流体和平板之间的相互作用将通过应用图案化或连续的自组装单分子层来控制。这项工作的总体成果是发展对这种纳米纤维制造技术中的加工-性能关系的机械理解，这将影响如下所述的许多不同的应用。如果成功，这项研究将对提高纳米纤维的制造能力产生技术影响，允许进一步调整纤维尺寸，并开发出在纳米复合纤维中以最小的颗粒浓度最大限度地提高性能的方案。这些目标对于最终在组织工程、过滤、燃料电池和传感器等各种商业应用中使用纳米纤维至关重要。因此，结果将被广泛传播，以支持用于各种应用的高度工程纤维基材的商业开发。此外，研究生、本科生和高中生将通过参与实验室环境下的跨学科研究而受益于这一研究计划。此外，这项研究将与工程学高级设计课程和洁净室设施中的教育/研究相结合，并开设有关现代实验技术的相关课程(例如光刻和高速成像--这些技术的例子将取自本项目)。最后，研究生和本科生将作为领导者参加聚合物科学/工程体验，这是为期一周的高中生课程的重要组成部分。

The research objective of this award is to make a paradigm shift in electrospinning, from fiber growth originating at a droplet suspended from a needle, to fiber growth from a large concentration of droplets on a charged plate, in order to significantly increase mass throughput. Furthermore, this methodology may result in the fabrication of smaller diameter fibers (~50 nm) by controlled design of the plate surface (including interfacial tension and surface architecture). In particular, the interaction between the fluid and plate will be controlled by application of patterned or continuous self-assembled monolayers. The overall deliverable of this work is to develop a mechanistic understanding of processing-property relationships in this nanofiber fabrication technique which will impact many diverse applications as described below. If successful, this research will have a technological impact on increasing nanofiber fabrication throughput, allowing further tuning of fiber size, and developing schemes to maximize property improvement with minimal particle concentration in nanocomposite fibers. These goals are crucial to ultimately utilizing nanofibers in diverse commercial applications such as tissue engineering, filtration, fuel cells, and sensors. Therefore, the results will be disseminated widely to support commercial development of highly engineered fibrous substrates for myriad applications. In addition, graduate, undergraduate, and high school students will benefit from this research program by participating in interdisciplinary research in the laboratory setting. Furthermore, the research will be integrated with an engineering senior design course and education/research in a clean room facility with an associated course on modern experimental techniques (such as lithography and high speed imaging - examples of which will be taken from this project). Finally, graduate and undergraduate students will participate as leaders in a polymer science/ engineering experience that is a significant part of a week-long program for high-school students.