POLYMERIC NANOFIBERS

Polymeric Nanofibers will showcase recent developments in the production, characterization, and emerging use of nanofibers made from different polymers for a variety of purposes. Although it has been difficult to produce polymer fibers in the laborator, electrospinning now makes it easier. Electrospinning, an electrohydrodynamical process for making thin polymer fibers with diameters in the range from around one nanometer to several thousands of nanometers, is simple and cost effective. Interest in other specialized routes to polymer nanofibers, including chemical synthesis, conventional textile fiber spinning, gas blowing, and other methods has been stimulated by the recent progress in electrospinning. Scientists and engineers in fields such as filtration, biomaterials, biomedical devices, chemical analysis, catalysis, aerospace, fiber reinforced composites, energy conversion, protective clothing, agriculture, and others can produce experimental quantities of nanofibers in their own laboratories, from a wide variety of polymers of interest to them. The number of papers and patents in electrospinning has grown at a rapid rate during the past decade, more than doubling each year since 1999.