Faculty of Science (FNWI) - Institute of Physics (IoP) - Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute (WZI)
Abstract
Direct near field electrospinning is used to produce very long helical polystyrene microfibers in water. The pitch length of helices can be controlled by changing the applied voltage, allowing the production of both microsprings and microchannels. Using a novel high frequency variable voltage electrospinning method we determined the helix formation speed and compared the experimental buckling frequency to theoretical expressions for viscous and elastic buckling. Finally we showed that the new method can be used to produce new periodic micro and nano structures.