The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Current measurements in electrospinning
Author:	Lien, Clinton K.
View Online:	njit-etd2013-051 (xi, 42 pages ~ 2.3 MB pdf)
Department:	Committee for the Interdisciplinary Program in Materials Science and Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Materials Science and Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Collins, George (Committee co-chair) Arinzeh, Treena Livingston (Committee co-chair) Federici, John Francis (Committee co-chair)
Date:	2013-05
Keywords:	Electrospinning Nanofibers Nanofiber diameter Current
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	Electrospinning provides an economical method of producing nanofibers. The current carried by the main spinning jet is found to be one of the factors in determining the diameter of the fiber product. However, current sources such as the corona discharge and secondary jets will lead to a systematic overestimation of the actual current value. In this research, experiments with different configurations are set up to investigate the influence of various parameters on the measured current. It is noticed that the measured current is nearly independent on the flow rate of the solution and the external cover. A large amount of current is detected even the syringe is empty when the experiments are carried out using conductive needle. By substituting the standard electrode with penetrating electrode, the current dropped to zero when the syringe was empty. An average of 0.26E-6 Amps reduction on the amount of measured current is observed when the syringe is filled with methylene chloride. In all cases that non-conductive Teflon needle is applied, a significant lower current is observed. However, experiments conducted using 12 wt% PCL polymer solution show nearly undetectable current value in all configurations. For the current behavior on outer collector plate, the measured current on the outer plate are extremely low regardless of needle type, electrode type, and syringe content conditions.