Electrospinning Fabrication Strategies: Fid-Bau Portal

Electrospinning Fabrication Strategies

From Conventional to Advanced Approaches

Dias, J.R. / Alves, Alexandra I. F. / Marzia‐Ferreira, Carolina A. / Alves, Nuno M.

Electrospinning is a widely used technique in several fields to produce micro‐nanofibers due to its versatility, low cost and easy use. Moreover, electrospun meshes present some advantages like high surface area, small pore size, high porosity, and interconnectivity. Present, also, the possibility to control the nanofiber composition and orientation to achieve desired properties and/or functionalities. These outstanding properties make the electrospun nanofibers good candidates for many applications such as filtration, tissue engineering, wound dressings, energy conversion and storage, catalysts and enzyme carriers, protective clothing, sensors, drug delivery, electronic and semi‐conductive materials.

This chapter presents a comprehensive review of current and advanced electrospinning fabrication strategies. Recent advances have been mainly focused on the materials used rather than on sophisticated fabrication strategies to generate complex structures. The technological limitations of conventional strategies, such as random, aligned, and core–shell technologies, and their reduced capacity to achieve 3D structures will be discussed. Advanced strategies, such as melt electrospinning, near field electrospinning, electroblowing, hybrid structures, cell electrospinning and in situ electrospinning will be highlighted in the way they may contribute to circumvent the limitations of conventional strategies, through the combination of different technologies and approaches. The main research challenges and future trends of fabrication electrospinning strategies will be discussed.