Direct electrospinning of short polymer fibers: factors affecting size and quality

Abstract

The growing demand for lightweight and robust materials drives the development of polymer-based and fiber-reinforced composites. Here, using short fibers offers several advantages; however, currently employed methods for producing short fibers, such as homogenization, result in a wide dispersion of dimensions in the produced fibers, which is an undesirable effect in composite materials. In this study, electrospinning is used to produce polymer short fibers directly. This research highlights, for the first time, the differences in the electrospinning process dynamics between short and continuous fibers. By adjusting parameters: voltage and distance, we control dimensions of short fibers below 1 µm in diameter and around 4 µm in length to a few microns in diameter and approximately 14 µm in length. Direct electrospinning of short fibers offers significant advantages, including a narrow size distribution and reproducibility compared to chopped continuous fibers with homogenization.