Electrospinning and electrically forced jets. II. Applications

Electrospinning is a process in which solid fibers are produced from a poly meric fluid stream (solution or melt) delivered through a millimeter-scale nozzle. This article uses the stability theory described in the previous ar ticle to develop a quantitative method for predicting when electrospinning occurs. First a method for calculating the shape and charge density of a st eady jet as it thins from the nozzle is presented and is shown to capture q uantitative features of the experiments. Then, this information is combined with the stability analysis to predict scaling laws for the jet behavior a nd to produce operating diagrams for when electrospinning occurs, both as a function of experimental parameters. Predictions for how the regime of ele ctrospinning changes as a function of the fluid conductivity and viscosity are presented. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.