A novel simple electrospinning process for preparing co-axial ultrafine fibers

A novel simple electrospinning process for preparing co-axial ultrafine fibers has been successfully developed in the present paper. The electrospinning has two characteristics: (1) a co-axial spinning head was prepared from stainless steel; (2) a two-syringe infusion pump was used for driving both the core spinning medium and the shell spinning liquid synchronously. The process has good capability of fabricating co-axial ultrafine fibers. Two examples of application were conducted. The results from one experiment exhibited that composite fibers loaded with active pharmaceutical ingredient for therapeutic effects coluld be easily prepared using the one-step manufacturing process. The results from another experiment showed that ultrafine hollow fibers were able to fabricate with the polymer solutions as the shell spinning liquids and the gas CO2 as the core medium. The developed process might find applications in preparing ultrafine fibers with micro-structural characteristics and local component variations for drug delivery, separation and extractions, tissue engineering.