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Fabrication of nanofibres has become a growing area of research because of their unique properties (i.e. smaller fibre diameter and higher surface area) and potential applications in various fields such as filtration, composites and biomedical applications. The mechanism of nanofibre fabrication by meltblowing process with the injection of different fluids (such as air and water) has been investigated in this paper. In the meltblowing equipment the fluids were injected at a vent port along the extrusion barrel, for the fabrication of nanofibres. The injection of water resulted in better fibre morphology compared to the injection of air. Nanofibres were fabricated by the drafting action of the high-velocity flow of the heated air and the steam in the extruder. The fibres collected were straight prior to the fluid injection and coiled fibres were collected with the injection of fluids. Three types of fibres such as ribbon shaped, fused and branched fibres were obtained in addition to the circular fibres.

Fabrication of nanofibres has become a growing area of research because of their unique properties (i.e. smaller fibre diameter and higher surface area) and potential applications in various fields such as filtration, composites and biomedical applications. Although several processes exist for fabrication of nanofibres, electrospinning is considered to be the simplest. Most of the research in electrospinning is based on solution rather than melt. The feasibility of fabricating nanofibres of polypropylene (PP) by meltblowing and melt electrospinning has been investigated in this paper. In meltblowing different fluids such as air and water were fed at different inlets along the extrusion barrel for the fabrication of nanofibres whereas in melt electrospinning it was achieved by using different additives. The results obtained by using water in meltblowing were better with respect to the morphology and fibre uniformity compared to air. In melt electrospinning although all the additives (i.e. sodium oleate (SO), polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS)) helped in reducing the fibre diameter, only SO was effective to reduce the diameter down to nanoscale. It was concluded that both the solvent-free processes have the potential to substantially increase the production of nanofibres compared to solution electrospinning.