Evolvement of spinneret in electrospinning toward large-scale production of nanofibers

Nanofibers have shown the potential in applications of different areas. Scaling up the production rate of nanofibers to fulfill the commercialization requirements has been a challenge as dedicated engineering design and advancement in nanoscience should be integrated intimately to make high throughputs a reality. Electrospinning, from either polymer solution or melts, is the most efficient way of manufacturing nanofibers, and it is a fiber manufacturing technology based on the traditional solution spinning or melt spinning. Research work has thus been focused on the development of electrospinning setup for scaled production. Starting from the needle, the spinneret/nozzle of electrospinning has evolved greatly in the recent years with increasing production rate. This chapter contributes a review on the evolvement of spinneret of electrospinning. The mechanism and the performance of different spinnerets are examined and discussed in detail. With the summary of evolvement trend of spinneret in electrospinning, the outlook of future development is discussed as well.