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Received 19 October 2017, accepted 14 March 2018, available online 24 April 2018
© 2018 Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Abstract. The current study focuses on the development of a novel electrospinning method with high productivity for nanofibre yarn production. By analysing different recent approaches for nanofibre yarn preparation systems it was found that getting rid of mechanical contacts between the fibres and the collector before the formation of the yarn leads to a significant growth in the production rate. A novel electrospinning unit was designed and tested. The formed fibres were aligned and twisted over the core yarn using a column with rotary air movement. The produced core-shell yarns were studied under scanning electron microscope to determine the morphology of the fibres and yarns. Also, the linear density of the yarn was calculated to determine the growth in mass after covering the core yarn with nanofibres.
Key words: nanofibre yarn, air vortex, electrospinning.
On keskendutud uudse elektroketrusmeetodi väljatöötamisele, millega saavutatakse nanokiulise lõnga valmistamisel märgatav tootlikkuse kasv. Analüüsides erinevaid hiljutisi lähenemisviise nanokiuliste lõngade valmistamiseks, leiti, et mehaaniliste kontaktide kõrvaldamine kiudude ja kollektori vahelt enne lõnga moodustumist võimaldab tootmismahul märkimisväärselt kasvada. Töö käigus konstrueeriti uudne katseseade, mida katsetati erinevatel tingimustel. Seadmes moodustunud õhupöörises elektrokedratud kiud joondusid, kattes läbi elektroketruskambri veetud südamikniidi ühtlase kihina. Kiudude ja lõnga pinnakvaliteeti hinnati skaneeriva elektronmikroskoobiga. Ühtlasi määrati ka lõnga joontihedus, et kindlaks teha massi kasv lõngas peale südamikniidi katmist nanokiududega.
1.INTRODUCTION
Electrospinning, a simple process to produce continuous fibres less than 1000 nm in diameter, is widely used to manufacture nonwoven membranes from nanofibres. Less common is investigation into electrospun yarns. At laboratory scale, various approaches to nanofibre yarn preparation are available, but so far there is no official statement about electrospinning instrumentation that would be able to produce continuous nanofibre yarn at industrial scale.
The simplest electrospinning setup consists of a spinneret filled with a polymer solution (most commonly a syringe with a needle), an earth-grounded collector plate, and a high voltage power supply to charge the spinneret [1,2]. Once the electrostatic force between the electrodes overcomes the surface tension of the polymer solution, the fibres will be pulled out from the...