Production of Silk Sericin Nanofibers

2011 ◽  
Vol 175-176 ◽  
pp. 348-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xian Hua Zhang ◽  
Masuhiro Tsukada ◽  
Yuji Satoh ◽  
Hideaki Morikawa

Electrospinning is a scientifically attractive spinning technique, since it can produce fibers with the diameters ranging from the sub-micron to nano dimensional scale. The fiber diameters and their standard deviation primarily depend on the polymer solution properties and electrospinning process variables. Silk sericin powder was obtained from the raw silk fiber of Bombyx mori silkworm. The solution was prepared by dissolving silk sericin powder in water at 85 °C for 30 minutes. In the electrospinning process, voltage 20 kV was applied and the inner diameter of the syringe needle was 0.3 mm. The distance from the syringe tip to the target was 15 cm. The sericin nanofibers with smooth surfaces can not be produced at 40 wt%. However, fine nanofibers were produced at the concentrations of 50 wt% and 60 wt%. It was suggested that the average diameters of the nanofibers increased with increasing solution concentration and the optimum concentration was 50 wt% for best nanofibers. Then solution 50 wt% was electrospun with different voltages from 13 kV to 25 kV, the working distance is 10 cm, the as-spun silk nanofibers were produced and exhibited fine nanofibers with smooth surfaces. The average diameters and diameter distributions of the nanofibers decreased with increasing voltage.

2014 ◽  
Vol 1033-1034 ◽  
pp. 1020-1023
Author(s):  
Chun Mei Qiao ◽  
Ting Ting Jiang ◽  
Yin Ling Zhang ◽  
Wei Min Kang

A kind of novel biodegradable Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride (CPVC) nanofibers using a mixture of Dimethyl Formamide (DMF) and Tetrahydrofuran (THF) as solvent were prepared by electrospinning process in this paper. The morphology of electrospun CPVC nanofiber nonwovens were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results indicated that the morphology and diameter of the electrospun fibers were influenced by CPVC solution concentration and the THF amount in the mixed solvents, and the finer and uniform nanofibers were electrospun from a mixed solvent of DMF and THF with ratio of 3/1(w/w).


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 913-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramprasath Ramakrishnan ◽  
Jolius Gimbun ◽  
Praveen Ramakrishnan ◽  
Balu Ranganathan ◽  
Samala Murali Mohan Reddy ◽  
...  

Background: This paper presents the effect of solution properties and operating parameters of polyethylene oxide (PEO) based nanofiber using a wire electrode-based needleless electrospinning. Methods: The feed solution was prepared using a PEO dissolved in water or a water-ethanol mixture. The PEO solution is blended with Bovine Serum Albumin protein (BSA) as a model drug to study the effect of the electrospinning process on the stability of the loaded protein. The polymer solution properties such as viscosity, surface tension, and conductivity were controlled by adjusting the solvent and salt content. The morphology and fiber size distribution of the nanofiber was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. Results: The results show that the issue of a beaded nanofiber can be eliminated either by increasing the solution viscosity or by the addition of salt and ethanol to the PEO-water system. The addition of salt and solvent produced a high frequency of smaller fiber diameter ranging from 100 to 150 nm. The encapsulation of BSA in PEO nanofiber was characterized by three different spectroscopy techniques (i.e. circular dichroism, Fourier transform infrared, and fluorescence) and the results showed the BSA is well encapsulated in the PEO matrix with no changes in the protein structure. Conclusion: This work may serve as a useful guide for a drug delivery industry to process a nanofiber at a large and continuous scale with a blend of drugs in nanofiber using a wire electrode electrospinning.


2009 ◽  
Vol 60-61 ◽  
pp. 465-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Yuan Zhong ◽  
Gao Feng Zheng ◽  
Dao Heng Sun

Near-Field Electrospinning (NFES) is a newly developed method to fabricate continuous and ordered solid nanofibers, with smaller spinneret-to-collector-distance the behavior of viscous jet would play a more prominent effect on the deposition and morphology of nanofiber. In this paper, a 2-dimentional physical model based on electrohydrodynamics and rheology was set up to discuss the morphology of viscous jet for NFES. The profile of the jet along z direction can be predicted by this model, and the impact of process parameters on the jet radius is analyzed. Radius of jet decreases with spinneret-to-substrate-distance decreasing; jet radius decreases with applied voltage and electric field strength increasing; jet electrospun from PEO solution is thinner than that from PVA solution with the same solution concentration; solution concentration has insignificant influence on the radius of jet from solution of the same polymer (PVA or PEO). This numerical simulation would improve the control of electrospinning process in NFES.


2012 ◽  
Vol 268-270 ◽  
pp. 198-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Bin Sun ◽  
D. Jia ◽  
Wei Min Kang ◽  
Bo Wen Cheng ◽  
Ya Bin Li

A kind of pullulan biopolymer nanofibers with diameter of 100~700nm were obtained using redistilled water as solvent through electrospinning technology in this paper. The effects of the spinning solution concentration, applied voltage, flow rate and capillary–screen distance on morphology and diameter distribution of pullulan nanofiber were studied by SEM. The results show that, different parameters had great influence on nanofibers’ morphology and diameter. The optimal parameters of pullulan nanofibers electrospinning were: 22wt.% spinning solution concentration, 31 kV voltage, 20 cm capillary–screen distance and 0.5ml/h flow rate.


2010 ◽  
Vol 129-131 ◽  
pp. 365-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Kun Liu ◽  
Mei Yu Chen ◽  
Run Jun Sun ◽  
Wei Hua Zhang ◽  
Zhao Huan Zhang ◽  
...  

In electrospinning, outlook of fibrous assembly changes not only with the variation of collecting setups, but with the electrospinning process. For example, formation of multiple jets on a single droplet at special electrospinning conditions can produce several regions of fibrous webs simultaneously, which is bound to bring a great increase of production of nanofibers. The initiation method of multiple jets during electrospinning was derived through an experimental investigation by means of a high-speed camera, which was used to obtain the information of the shape change of a droplet along with process conditions, such as solution concentration, voltage and flow rate. Results showed that multiple jets could be initiated in a controlled manner when droplets experienced several cycles of dripping at relatively high voltages and flow rates in a certain concentration range. An interesting phenomenon of the auto-initiation of double jets was further observed in our experiment.


Author(s):  
John B. Lee ◽  
Adam Huang

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have produced ideas and techniques for creating new devices at the micro/nano scale. Nano/pico satellites have limited orientation capability partly due to the current state of microthruster devices. Development of a self-contained micro propulsion system would enable dynamic orbital maneuvering of pico- and nano-class satellites. The act of vaporizing a fluid via nanochannels to vacuum has not been studied and the limitations are unknown, but it could provide a novel method of propulsion for small satellites. However, solution properties are transient during vaporization which affects fluid flow. Thus, experiments have been designed to measure solution properties including density, evaporation rate, and vaporization pressure. A setup has been designed monitor the solution mass and volume inside a vacuum chamber. Evaporation of the solution is affected by the vacuum pressure, capillary tubing diameter, solution temperature, and solution concentration. When maintained at the solution vapor pressure, the vaporization rate has ranged from 0.003 to 0.025 grams per minute across the varying concentrations. Preliminary results have indicated some interesting trends regarding solution composition and vaporization rate. The results obtained from preliminary experiments will be used in conjunction with future experiments to determine the viability of nanochannels to be used in the small satellite propulsion system.


2016 ◽  
Vol 694 ◽  
pp. 101-105
Author(s):  
M. Mohamad ◽  
M.F.Z. Abidin ◽  
Haslan Fadli Ahmad Marzuki ◽  
Abdullah Ahmad Nizam ◽  
Muhamad Hazri Othman ◽  
...  

This work was carried out as a preliminary study of electrospun LiFePO4/CA fibers. Cellulose acetate (CA) and LiFePO4 solutions were prepared separately using mixed solvent of acetone and water, prior to the electrospinning process. Then, electrospinning parameters including solution concentration, distance tip to collector, pump rate, and needle diameter size were optimized. Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) was used to determine the surface area of CA fibers. Viscosity of CA solution was obtained by viscometer. LiFePO4/CA fibers were stabilized and carbonized at different temperature. The surface morphology and microstructure of the obtained LiFePO4/ CA fibers were then characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM). In this work, it is shown that different electrospinning parameter, solution concentration and solution viscosity gives different fibers diameter and distribution. Moreover, the stabilization and carbonization temperature of LiFePO4/CA fibers may also affect the fibers microstructure.


Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Iregui ◽  
Lourdes Irusta ◽  
Loli Martin ◽  
Alba González

In this work Poly ε-caprolactone (PCL)/ Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) blends were electrospun and the obtained mats were UV cured to achieve shape memory properties. In the majority of studies, when blends with different compositions are electrospun, the process variables such as voltage or flow rate are fixed independently of the composition and consequently the quality of the fibers is not optimized in all of the range studied. In the present work, using the design of experiments methodology, flow rate and voltage required to obtain a stable process were evaluated as responses in addition to the fiber diameter and shape memory properties. The results showed that the solution concentration and amount of PCL played an important role in the voltage and flow rate. For the shape memory properties excellent values were achieved and no composition dependence was observed. In the case of fiber diameter, similar results to previous works were observed.


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