Nanofiber yarn production methods by electrospinning

Abstract

Nano-size fiber production by electrospinning has been a common application method recently due to both being an easy and flexible system and high performance of the fibers produced. Generally in this system, fibers are produced directly as a non-woven surface of fiber-web and this limits potential end-uses of these high performance fibers. However direct spinning of these special fibers into a yarn form rather than production as a web-surface by electrospinning method would lead to an easy conversion of these fibers into woven or knitted fabrics and therefore widen the use area of these fibers substantially. In this respect, this work describes the novel approaches and methods for nanofiber yarn production by electrospinning classifying available but limited studies into two main categories: (i) parallel bundle of nanofiber yarn spinning methods, and (ii) twisted nanofiber yarn spinning methods. The results show that these highly special nanofiber yarns, which can have desired fineness, twist and functionality, could easily be designed and spun for a specific enduse by careful selection of the spinning method, choice of polymer and production parameters.