Scaling-up the Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning Device

Abstract

Ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) is an electrospinning method that utilizes focused ultrasound to produce nanofibers. The focused ultrasound creates an acoustic fountain on a polymer solution surface. With a high-voltage electric field, electrospinning is initiated from the fountain. Until now USES has been limited by its production rate due to the use of a single ultrasound transducer. Here we present a multi-transducer USES device, with a similar footprint as our old device. Increase in throughput was studied using three of the transducers. Simultaneous, stable spinning, with three transducers was not achieved, however we double the amount of produced fiber with two transducers. Compared to the previous USES device, the results indicate that USES can potentially be scaled up.