Active Control of Fabricating Nanofibrous Wavy/Helical Arrays Using Near-Field Electrospinning

A novel and simple near-field electrospinning (NFES) method has been developed to fabricate wavy or helical nanofibrous arrays. By alternating the electrostatic signals applied on auxiliary-electrodes (AE), the structural parameters of deposited patterns can be actively controlled. Compared with the traditional electrospinning methods based on the bending and buckling effects or collector movement, the proposed method shows advantages in the controllability, accuracy, and minimal feature size. Forces operating on the electrospinning jet and the time-varying electric field distribution were analyzed to explain the kinematics of the jet. Nanoscale wavy and helical patterns with various structural parameters were fabricated. The effects of experimental process parameters on structural parameters of deposited patterns were analyzed to demonstrate the controllability of our method in fabricating wavy or helical nanofibrous structures. It is envisioned that this method will benefit the applications in the field of photovoltaic devices, sensors, transducers, resonators, and stretchable electronics.Copyright © 2018 by ASME