Electrospinning nonspinnable sols to ceramic fibres and springs

Dr Shiling Dong and Dr Barbara Maciejewska headed a team of researchers who addressed the issue of brittleness in ceramics*.  Up to now, such vulnerabilities in the materials have prevented ceramics being widely used for their qualities of strength and durability by industries such as electronics and protective clothing.  The received wisdom was that electrospinning could be the answer, however it had its flaws, most notably complexity and long processing times producing porous mechanically weak fibres.

Considering this issue, Dr Dong, Dr Maciewjewska and their team have developed a pioneering coaxial electrospinning technique which employs both a sol and a separate polymer solution into the same spinnet nozzle.  This reduces the porosity and also decreases surface defects, encourages uniform crystal packing and controls diameters.  

When the method was applied to non-spinnable sol solutions, greatly improved flexibility and a high Young's modulus reading were achieved.  

The authors of this paper also report on the creation of ceramic fibres in micro and nanospring morphologies; the improved fracture strain exhibited between 3.5 - 5 times density-normalised toughness when compared to straight fibres.

This new method expands the selection of the electrospinning solution and enables the development of ceramic fibres with more attractive properties.  It has also impressed the editors of Nanowerk, who chose to highlight this technique in their 9 May 2024 edition. 

*Read the full paper in American Chemical Society: 'Electrospnining Nonspinnable Sols to Ceramic Fibers and Springs'.