Nanopottery: coiling of electrospun nanojets

나노스케일 도예 기법: 전기 방사된 나노젯의 코일링

In an electrospinning process, nanofibers are produced from a droplet of a viscoelastic polymer solution subjected to strong electric field. To date, intrinsic bending instability of the electrical jets has resulted in random piles of nanofibers on a grounded collector plate. Here we report a novel electrospinning process where a hollow micropillar is constructed by the coiling of nanofibers on a sharp grounded collector. We show that the hollow microstructure formation can be explained by the viscous fluid rope coiling theory. The current process can be employed for the fabrication of three-dimensional scaffolds for cell culturing and the three-dimensional nanoprinting.