What Are Nano Fibers And How Are They Formed?

Nanofibers are well defined fibers which is less than 100 nanometers in diameter. But, in textile industry these fibers are a bit extended to 1000nm in diameter, for giving a perfect shape and size that any large fiber should have. These fibers are produced with the help of three major methods which are electrospinning, electrostatic spinning and interfacial polymerization.

These fibers are cylindrical in shape and hold potential application in medicine, including tissue engineering, artificial organ components, wound dressing, implant material, drug delivery and other medical related materials too. Interesting fact is that, through recent studies it has been proved that the meshes of these fibers hold amazing properties to fight against the H1N1 virus. And for healing the wounds these fibers coagulate at the injury site and tend to enhance the body growth factors at that particular site.

Formation of the Potent Nano Fibers

The most common tool that is used for the formation of nano fiber is known as electrospinning. There are some important components that are part of this process which are reservoir with ceramic solution, power supply, grounded collector and essential compounds.

First a high voltage is passed over the polymeric solution so that the electrostatic forces act repulsive and tend to overcome the surface tension of the solution. When this happens, a liquid called the “Taylor cone” is created. This liquid reacts with the metal reservoir so that it can destabilize and thus lead to bending instability.

The combination of the mechanical and electrostatic forces pushes the polymer as well as the solvent out. This is the reason why it is named as the electrospinning technique. The resulting polymers are nothing but simple form of nano fibers with similar chemical and physical properties.

There are many advantages of nanofibers when compared to other form of fibers such as, small pore size, high pore volume and high surface area too.