Melt-electrospinning of nanofibers

Thermoplastic polymers are the materials that are moldable above a specific temperature and solidify upon cooling. Fibres of these polymers with average diameter ranging from 10 to 50 µm can be produced as nonwoven webs by traditional methods such as melt spinning, dry spinning and wet spinning. Recently, there is has been a tremendous increase in the demand for polymeric nanofibres, which are promising candidates for various applications including tissue engineering, protective clothing, filtration and sensors. Various techniques such as melt-electrospinning, meltblowing, bicomponent spinning, force-spinning and flash-spinning can be used for the fabrication of nanofibres of thermoplastic polymers. In this chapter we summarize the melt-electrospinning technique used for the fabrication of nanofibres of thermoplastic polymers including their characterisation techniques and properties. This chapter also highlights various applications of nanofibres in bioengineering, sensing and other areas.