Creating Miracles with Polymeric Fibers (AIP)

Creating Miracles with Polymeric Fibers (AIP)

From the Journal: Applied Physics Reviews

Professor Mohan Edirisinghe, UCL Mechanical Engineering

Mohan Edirisinghe  (Bonfield Chair of Biomaterials, UCL Mechanical Engineering) leads a team of researchers at University College London studying the fabrication of polymeric nanofibers and microfibers — very thin fibers made up of polymers. The group describes a study comparing fabrication techniques for these fibers without the use of electric fields in Applied Physics Reviews, from AIP Publishing.

For applications ranging from scaffolding for tissue engineering and drug delivery to bacterial and viral air filtration, polymeric fibers can be woven into textilelike structures with the characteristics required for the task. Depending on the use, different fiber thicknesses may be necessary. But the ability to fabricate thin fibers with consistent characteristics is important.

“When you have thinner fibers, you use lesser material, and you can weave a web — whether it’s a tissue engineering scaffold or a filtration scaffold — much better,” said Edirisinghe. “You can put more fiber strands in what you weave.”

To study the effects of various parameters on fiber fabrication, the researchers compared the characteristics of fibers created in different ways. The conventional way of making fibers is by a process called centrifugal spinning. In centrifugal spinning, the polymer solution is placed in a reservoir. When the reservoir is rotated at high speeds, the polymer solution jets out in the form of fine fibers….more

Read the feature on American Institute of Physics (AIP) website

• Experimental and theoretical investigation of the fluid behavior during polymeric fiber formation with and without pressure
• Professor Mohan Edirisinghe
• Edirisinghe Lab

PhD student Hussain Alenezi receives recognition for his work on this research.

Photographs from video clips at different times showing behavior of the polymer solution in the transparent vessel with matching theoretical simulations and typical products at different rotation speeds and pressures. CREDIT: Hussain Alenezi, Muhammet Emin Cam and Mohan Edirisinghe

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