Pratyush Dayal, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1249 Benedum Hall, 3700 Ohara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15261
While the concept of electro-spinning has been known for quite some time, the in-situ experimental monitoring of the development of internal microstructure is not feasible because of the extremely fast electro-jet spinning process that is completed within a few milli-seconds. The theoretical modeling/simulation is therefore of paramount importance for mimicking the rapid development of microstructures in order to guide the actual electro-spinning process. Our preliminary simulation reveals the trajectory of the morphology evolved along the spinline of the electro-spun fiber in which intricate structural ordering processes are registered. The extension of the present theoretical treatment to the liquid crystalline or rigid rod solutions is of immense interest because of the rich variety of mesophase structures displayed by these systems and also electro-jet extrusion to produce two-dimensional micro-structured films. Given the two-dimensional structure, the electro-jet extruded films have wider utilizations relative to their counterpart – electrospun fibers, because the polymer film industry is orders of magnitude larger than the fiber industry. Moreover, optimizing the process variables such as solvent evaporation rate, flow rate, applied voltage, and viscosity (spinnability) to obtain the desired morphology of the end product not only provides an added value, but also eliminates the post processing step. The knowledge thus acquired will be applied to manufacture of micro-structured materials which would have significant impact to industries producing specialty polymers.