Review on fiber morphology obtained by bubble electrospinning and blown bubble spinning

Abstract

Here we show an intriguing phenomenon in the bubble electrospinning process that the ruptured film might be stripped upwards by an electronic force to form a very thin and long plate-like strip, which might been received in the metal receiver as discontinuous backbone-like wrinkled materials, rather than smooth nano-fibers or microspheres. The processes are called the bubble electrospinning. The electronic force can be replaced by a blowing air, and the process is called as the blown bubble spinning. We demonstrate that the size and thickness of the ruptured film are the crucial parameters that are necessary to understand the various observations including beads and nanoporous materials. We identify the conditions required for a ruptured film to form discontinuous structure, and a critical width of the ruptured film to form a cylindrical fiber, above which a long and thin plate-like strip might be obtained, and a criterion for oscillatory jet diameter, which leads to bead morphology of the obtained fibers. The space of the adjacent beads depends on the fiber size. We anticipate our assay to be a starting point for more sophisticated study of the bubble electrospinning and the blown bubble spinning and for mass-production of both nanofibers and nanoscale discontinuous materials.