Electrospinning is a straightforward method to produce micro/nanoscale fibers from polymer solutions typically using an operating voltage of 10 kV–30 kV and spinning distance of 10 cm–20 cm. In this paper, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) non-woven nanofibers with diameters of 200 nm–900 nm were prepared by low-voltage near-field electrospinning with a working voltage of less than 2.8 kV and a spinning distance of less than 10 mm. Besides the uniform fibers, beaded-fibers were also fabricated and the formation mechanism was discussed. Particularly, a series of experiments were carried out to explore the influence of processing variables on the formation of near-field electrospun PVP nanofibers, including concentration, humidity, collecting position, and spinning distance.
Fluorescein/polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) composite nanofibers with different fluorescein loadings (with a weight concentration of 0-5.0%) are fabricated via electrospinning. Morphologies, structures and photoluminescent (PL) properties of these straight, helical or wavelike fibers are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence microscopy and a spectrophotometer. It is found that the maximum emission of the as-spun fluorescein/PVP fibers occurs at 510 nm. The PL intensity of the composite fiber increases with fluorescein concentration, then fluorescence quenching appears when the concentration reaches 1.67%. The mechanism of fluorescence quenching of fluorescein is discussed. In addition, the composite fibers exhibit a much stronger PL intensity than fluorescein/PVP bulk film owing to larger specific surface area, which makes them promising materials for biomedical applications such as probes and sensors.
Electrospinning is a straightforward method to produce micro/nanoscale fibers from polymer solutions typically using an operating voltage of 10 kV–30 kV and spinning distance of 10 cm–20 cm. In this paper, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) non-woven nanofibers with diameters of 200 nm–900 nm were prepared by low-voltage near-field electrospinning with a working voltage of less than 2.8 kV and a spinning distance of less than 10 mm. Besides the uniform fibers, beaded-fibers were also fabricated and the formation mechanism was discussed. Particularly, a series of experiments were carried out to explore the influence of processing variables on the formation of near-field electrospun PVP nanofibers, including concentration, humidity, collecting position, and spinning distance.
Cerium (Ⅲ) nitrate/poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (Ce(NO3)3/PVP) composite fibres have been prepared by electrospinning. After calcining the composite fibres in air at 500℃,CeO2 nanowires were obtained. The characterizations of the as-spun composite fibres and resultant nanowires have been carried out by a scanning electron microscope (SEM),an infrared spectrometer,an x-ray diffractometer and a fluorescence spectrophotometer. Interestingly,some unusual ribbon-like or twin fibres were observed besides the common fibres with circular or elliptic cross sections. We developed a fibre-division model resulting from Coulomb repulsion and solvent vaporization to interpret the formation of the ribbons or twin fibres,which has been confirmed by the SEM studies. Our results also indicate that the formation of the ribbons or twin fibres is less dependent on operation voltage and work distance.
