Electrospinning and electrospun nanofibres

Fibres with diameters less than 1000 nm (or 1 μm) are defined as nanofibres and they can be produced by several processing techniques, particularly by electrospinning (ES) technique. ES technique was invented by Formhals in 1934 that in this the electrical field imposes a uniaxial stretching of a viscoelastic jet derived from the polymer solution to continuously reduce the diameter and leads to formatting nanofibres. It is simple and cost-effectiveness technique for preparation of nanofibres. Electrospinning allows for fabricating polymer fibres with diameters varying from 3 nm to greater than 5 μm and in the past decade due in large part to a higher interest in nanoscale properties and technologies. In synthesis process of nanofibres by ES technique, many factors affect on the synthetic nanofibres properties such as polymer properties, solvent properties, additives, polymer concentration, solution properties and so on. In this study, the authors reviewed basic electrospinning and introduces various polymers for preparation of nanofibres.