A Step Forward in Tissue Engineering Design: Control on Multi-Scale Fiber Alignment by Electrospinning

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel electrospinning method for controllable fiber alignment and deposition on a dielectric substrate by the electric field manipulation using nanosecond rise time high-voltage pulse generators. A preliminary numerical simulation shows electric field distribution in proposed geometry with a syringe and two cylindrical collectors. Samples of oriented materials based on a polyamide 6/66 copolymer with a low degree of disorientation 2-4° were obtained. The study of thermal and mechanical behavior of oriented materials based on polyamide was carried out, and for the first time for electrospun fibers the microscale orientation effects of polymer crystallites were found by X-ray diffraction in small and wide angles. Orientation occurs in the developed materials both at macro and micro levels. The possibility to create material by stacking multiple layers with given fiber orientation at 65° and 90° and spinning on various dielectric materials due to the reverse polarity operating principle is demonstrated. The ability to control fiber alignment in electrospinning will expand the possibilities of high-performance polymer nonwoven materials production with a given architecture and unique physicochemical characteristics for solving a whole range of medical and technological challenges of a different profile.

Keywords: Electrospinning, Electric Field Jet Control, Mono- and Poly-Oriented Fibers, PA 6/66, High Voltage Nanosecond Pulse Generators