Modified cylindrical collectors for improved orientation of electrospun nanofibers.

In many biomedical applications of nanofibers, such as vascular grafts, longitudinal orientation of the fibers is required in order to enable the grafts to withstand high blood pressures. This study is aimed at developing novel cylindrical collectors and orientation processes for electrospun nanowebs with better and controlled fiber orientation. Effect of the length of conductive and non-conductive collector segments was investigated, along with the effect of polymer concentration, feed rate, electrospinning voltage, distance and groove depth of the non-conductive segment on the mean fiber diameter and orientation of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers. Results of the study show that polymer concentration has major effect on the fiber diameter followed by length of the conductive segment and groove depth. Fiber orientation was mainly affected by length of the non-conductive segments of the collector and the polymer concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]