16. - 18. 10.

2013, Brno, Czech Republic, EU

THE SLIT NEEDLELESS ELECTRODE FOR THE ELECTROSPINNING

Karel PEJCHAR1, Lucie VYSLOUILOV2, Pavel POKORN2, Martin BLEK1, Jaroslav BERAN1,
David LUK2

1 Department of Textile Machine Design, Technical University of Liberec, Studentska 2, 461 17 Liberec,
Czech Republic,
2 Department of Nonwovens, Technical University of Liberec, Studentsk 2, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic

Karel.Pejchar@tul.cz

Abstract

The needleless electrospinning is a variant of electrospinning from a free liquid surface of a polymeric layer.
The layer is destabilized in a high external electric field. The instability categorized as the Larmor-Tonks-
Frenkel one, has its nature in the self-organization by the mechanism of the fastest forming instability i.e.,
of the fastest growing capillary wave. Electrospinning starts by achieving of certain critical value of the
electric field strength. In the article, the value of the critical voltage of electrospinning outset was examined,
and the dependency of the electrospinning process on the length of the needleless electrode was
investigated. The optimal length of the needleless electrode was found.

Key words: needleless electrospinning, free liquid, electric field strength, critical voltage

1. INTRODUCTION

Electrospinning is a process of nanofibers production by high electrical field known since the beginning of the
former century [1, 2]. It is a popular technology for creating unique materials with a broad range of
applications, like filtration, scaffolds for tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound dressing, protective
clothing, fiber reinforced composite materials, sensors and electrodes for use in electronics and optics or
sound insulators [3, 4, 5, 6].
For the production of nanofibers by electrospinning, a less productive needle or capillary technology is most
commonly used [1, 7, 8]. As described [9] needle can produce only one polymer jet and the productivity of
nanofibers is lower than 300 mg/h per needle. Higher productivity can be reached by increasing the number
of needles [10]. However, this so-called multiple-jet setup has problem with non-uniform electric field, a large
operating space is necessary and the cleaning of spinneret is more demanding. Yarin and Zussman brought
a revolutionary idea [11] of needleless electrospinning allowing increase in nanofibers productivity.
Technology of mass production of nanofibers and commercialization of the needleless electrospinning was
developed and patented under the brand name Nanospider TM in 2004 [12]. The principle is electrospinning
from a free liquid surface of a polymeric layer, which is destabilized by a high external electric field. The
instability of surface waves categorized as the Larmor-Tonks-Frenkel one, has its nature in the self-
organization by the mechanism of the fastest forming instability. This mechanism plays a key role in
selection of the fastest growing capillary wave with a characteristic wavelength . The electrospinning
process starts by achieving of certain critical value of the electric field strength Ec [13].
Corona discharges appear nearby Taylor cone during the electrospinninng process. The corona that
develops in inhomogeneous electric fields is a stable type of discharge and may precede spark. Spark
discharge comes to pass if electrical intensity reaches the critical value of electrical breakdown (106 Vm-1).
As a consequence the spark discharge takes energy and the attenuation of electrospinning comes. The
corona discharges during electrospinning and the negative spark discharge are shown in Fig 1.
 16. - 18. 10. 2013, Brno, Czech Republic, EU

Fig 1 Corona discharges (a) and the negative spark discharge (b).

2. EXPERIMENTAL

In our work, four types of slit needleless electrodes were tested. We tested the optimal length of the slit
electrode for needleless electrospinning process, the optimal distance between the slit electrode and the
collector and we were looking for the critical value of the electric field strength.
2.1 Materials

Water-soluble Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, Sloviol R16) was used (from Chemicke zavody Novaky, SK). For our
experiment, a solution of 12 Wt.% PVA in distilled water was prepared. The well-electrospinning PVA
solution was prepared at a room temperature by 4 h magnetic stirring.

2.2 Equipments
For the experiment the metal slit electrodes were used (Fig 2). These electrodes were prepared in four
length versions. The range of lengths of the slip electrodes goes from the dimension 100 mm through 150
mm, 200 mm to size 300 mm (A in Fig 3). The width of slit electrodes was 4 mm. There were placed plastic
balls at both ends of slip electrodes. Plastic balls prevented the slit electrode from electrical discharges and
all of the energy is focused on the polymer layer. The electrical intensity is highest at the ends of slip
electrodes, because there are sharp edges. We need the highest electrical intensity focused on the electro-
spun polymeric layer, which we can achieve thanks to the plastic balls.

Fig 2 Slit needleless electrode with plastic balls at both ends of the electrode.

2.3 Approach
Slit needleless electrodes were located into a chamber with laboratory air conditions (the temperature was
21 1 C and the relative humidity was 50 5 %) and connected to a high voltage source (Spellman Sl100).
 16. - 18. 10. 2013, Brno, Czech Republic, EU

Slit electrodes were positively charged and located 150 mm (B in the Fig 3) under oppositely charged
collector, vide (Fig 3). The collector was made from a stainless steel sheet with thickness 2 mm. The size of
the collector is 160 mm x 355 mm (width x depth). Two independent sources of high voltage were used in
the experiment. The high voltage sources can operate in a range of 0 50 kV and 0 2.4 mA. A nonwoven
Spunbond (Pegas, CZ) for collecting of nanofibers was located under the collector. The width of Spunbond
was 300 mm. The Corocam 1 (Uvirco, SA) was used for the assessment of the quality of the electrospining
process. The Corocam enabled us detecting corona discharges during electrospinning process.

Fig 3 Schema of the electrospinning setup: the slit needleless electrode (1), the collector (2), the collecting
Spunbond nonwoven (3), the positive high voltage source (4), the negative high voltage source (5).

The polymer solution (PVA) was supplied manually by means of a syringe at the beginning of each spinning
process. Taylor cones [14] were created on the top of polymer layer thanks to the mechanism of the fastest
forming instability after switching on the high voltage sources. They were created during our experiment by
increase in voltage U and electric field strength E. We observed emerging Taylor cones and voltage was
increased to start the electrospinning. The process was recorded by Corocam 1 and the characteristic
wavelength was examined, vide (Fig 4), which is a distance between polymeric jets during needleless
electrospinning. During our experiment, the value of voltage was increased to find the optimal
electrospinning process. Values of voltage when first Taylor cone was discovered, electrospinning started
(The critical voltage Ucr ) and the optimal electrospinning was achieved (The optimal voltage ) are
shown in the Table 1.
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Fig 4 The Characteristic wavelength of needleless electrospinning of PVA.

3. RESULTS

The critical wavelength was measured from records of the Corocam 1. The values of the critical
wavelength for all lengths of slit needleless electrodes are given in Table 1. The critical wavelength from our
experiment corresponds with theoretical prediction [13]:

= 2 , (1)

where is the critical wavelength and = / is the capillary length. The values of 12 Wt.% PVA
surface tension , density and gravity acceleration for our calculation are = 0.0437 N. m1, =
1006.9 kg. m3 , = 9.6 m. s 2 . The capillary length then equals 2.1 103 m and = 1.319 102 m. The
critical wavelength measured in our experiment ranged from 10.38 to 12.55 m, vide (Table 1).

Table 1 Parameters of the needleless electrospinning

Critical
Parameter A wavelength St. deviation Production
(mm) c (mm) (mm) Utc (kV) Ucr (kV) Uopt (kV) rate (g/min)
100 10.38 1.39 38 60 66 0.042970
150 12.55 2.68 37 52 64 0.049082
200 10.76 2.10 43 50 66 0.062356
300 11.36 3.43 40 60 70 0.079100

Production rate of slit needleless electrodes with different lengths was investigated in our experiment. Values
are shown in Table 1. Values of the production rate in dependence on electrode length were plotted in the
chart, vide (Fig 5), as well as the values of the optimal voltage . The production rate was increased with
electrode length. We predicted the value of the critical voltage and optimal voltage will be higher in
dependence on the electrode length. There is shown that values of voltage when first Taylor cone was
discovered is slightly higher for longer slit needleless electrodes, but there is no increasing dependency in
the critical voltage and optimal voltage as can be seen in the Table 1 and in the Chart. We can see that the
values of the critical voltage are similar for all types of electrode length. The value of the optimal voltage is
slightly higher for the longest slit needleless electrode.
 16. - 18. 10. 2013, Brno, Czech Republic, EU

0,09
70,00

Production rate (g/min)

0,08
60,00 0,07
50,00 0,06
Voltage (V)

40,00 0,05
0,04
30,00 Voltage - optimal
0,03
20,00
Productivity 0,02
10,00 0,01
0,00 0,00
100 150 200 250 300

Length of electrode (mm)

Fig 5 Chart of the dependency of the voltage and production rate on the electrode length.

The morphology of nanofibrous layers was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (Tescan,
CZ), vide Fig. 6. The diameters of nanofibers were measured with the image analysis software NIS elements
3.0. The average diameter values of nanofibers are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 The average diameter values of nanofibers

Parameter A (mm) Diameter (nm) St. deviation (nm)

100 190 89
150 280 110
200 270 120
300 250 84
The morphology of nanofibrous layers and the diameter of nanofibers are not dependent on the length of the
slit needleless electrodes as shows Table 2 and Fig 6. Very fine nanofibers were produced by needleless
electrospinning.

Fig 6 SEM images of nanofibrous layers from slit needleless electrodes.

 16. - 18. 10. 2013, Brno, Czech Republic, EU

4. CONCLUSION
Slit needleless electrodes with different lengths were tested in our work. The main attention was paid to the
finding of the critical wavelength and the value of the critical voltage necessary for launching the
needleless electrospinning. The critical wavelength was measured and compared with the theoretical value
of this parameter prediction. The critical wavelength corresponded with the theoretical value. The value of
the critical voltage and the optimal voltage for needleless electrospinning were found. Production rate in
dependence on the length of electrode and the optimal voltage was evaluated and dependences have been
found. Values of the critical voltage are similar for all lengths of electrodes. The production rate for each of
electrode was determined. In comparison with the 100 mm electrode, the production rate of the 300 mm
electrode was almost twice higher, but the value of optimal voltage for electrospinning has increased only
about 6%.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The paper has been elaborated with financial support of TUL in the framework of specific university
research competition.

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