Selective Nanofiber Deposition through Field-Enhanced Electrospinning

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate a nanofiber patterning technique using field-enhanced electrospinning. Polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofibers were electrospun on an elastomeric substrate with gold-coated pyramidal protrusions with the majority of fibers being deposited at the tips. The deposited nanofiber spots ranged from 8 x 8 microm(2) to 60 x 60 microm(2) in size, uniformly covering an area of 5 x 10 mm(2). Our experiments also indicate that nanofiber pattern selectivity is highly dependent on the separation/size ratio of the pyramidal protrusions with a ratio of <1, resulting in a superior selectivity.