In this research, a novel fixed-bed reactor was designed with a nanofiber membrane composed of a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/chitosan nanofiber blend prepared using an electrospinning technique. The applied voltage, tip-collector distance, and solution flow rate of the electrospinning process were 18 kV, 14.5 cm, and 0.5 mL h(-1), respectively. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) theory, scanning electron...

Membrane filtration has become an accepted technology for the removal of pathogens from drinking water. Viruses, known to contaminate water supplies, are too small to be removed by a size-exclusion mechanism without a large energy penalty. Thus, functionalized electrospun membranes that can adsorb viruses have drawn our interest. We chose a quaternized chitosan derivative (HTCC) which carries a...

Dextran is a versatile biomacromolecule for preparing electrospun nanofibrous membranes by blending with either water-soluble bioactive agents or hydrophobic biodegradable polymers for biomedical applications. In this study, an antibacterial electrospun scaffold was prepared by electrospinning of a solution composed of dextran, polyurethane (PU) and ciprofloxacin HCl (CipHCl) drug. The obtained...

The applications of electrospun carbon fiber webs to the development of energy storages devices, including both supercapacitors and lithium ion batteries (LIB), are reviewed. Following a brief discussion of the fabrication process and characterization methods for ultrafine electrospun carbon fibers, recent advances in their performance as supercapacitors and LIBs anode materials are summarized....

Electrospinning is a versatile method for forming continuous thin fibers based on an electrohydrodynamic process. This method has the following advantages: (i) the ability to produce thin fibers with diameters in the micrometer and nanometer ranges; (ii) one-step forming of the two- or three-dimensional nanofiber network assemblies (nanofibrous membranes); and (iii) applicability for a broad sp...

In this paper, a new image analysis based method for electrospun nanofiber diameter measurement has been presented. The method was tested by a simulated image with known characteristics and a real web. Mean (M) and standard deviation (STD) of fiber diameter obtained using this method for the simulated image were 15.02 and 4.80 pixels respectively, compared to the true values of 15.35 and 4.47 p...

Objective: The study aimed at obtaining and characterizing levofloxacin-loaded, poly(ε-caprolactone) electrospun nanofiber formulations to be used as antibacterial wound dressings. Methods: Drug-loaded nanofibers were obtained by the electrospinning process and their morphology was determined using scanning electron microscopy. Structural analysis of the prepared nanofibers was carried out usin...

The experimental design and response surface methodology (RSM) have been used to develop predictive models for simulation and optimization of electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride non-woven membranes. The objective is to prepare electrospun fibers with small diameters and narrow diameter distribution. The factors considered for experimental design were the polymer dope solution flow rate, the app...

Novel biodegradable multiblock copolymers of [PCL-b-P(THF-co-CL)]m with PCL fractions of 53.3 and 88.4 wt % were prepared by Janus polymerization of ε-caprolactone (CL) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). Their electrospun mats were obtained with optimized parameters containing bead-free nanofibers whose diameters were between 290 and 520 nm. The mechanical properties of the nanofiber scaffolds were mea...

We study the effects of a controlled gas flow on the dynamics of electrified jets in the electrospinning process. The main idea is to model the air drag effects of the gas flow by using a nonlinear Langevin-like approach. The model is employed to investigate the dynamics of electrified polymer jets at different conditions of air drag force, showing that a controlled gas counterflow can lead to ...