Form-stable electrospun nanofibrous mats as a potential phase change material

Batch preparation of nanofibers containing nanoparticles by an electrospinning device with multiple air inlets

With the increasing application of electrospun nanofibers, the batch preparation of high-performance functional nanofibers containing nanoparticles has become a research hotspot. As the distribution uniformity of nanoparticles in functional nanofibers has a great impact on their performance, an electrospinning device with multiple air inlets, which has a copper porous spinneret, is proposed to obtain functional nanofibers with higher yield and more uniform distribution of nanoparticles. The mechanism of batch preparation of functional nanofibers containing ZnO nanoparticles by the device was studied through experiments and theoretical analysis. The experimental data are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis results, which showed that under the appropriate voltage (50 kV) and air flow (50 m3/h), the device could keep ZnO nanoparticles contained in the spinning solution evenly dispersed during the spinning process, thus obtaining functional nanofibers with more uniform distribution of ZnO nanoparticles, whose quality and yield were higher than those prepared by other high-yield electrospinning devices.

Thermo-active Smart Electrospun Nanofibers

The recent burst of research on smart materials is a clear evidence of the growing interest of the scientific community, industry, and society in the field. The exploitation of the great potential of stimuli-responsive materials for sensing, actuation, logic, and control applications is favored and supported by new manufacturing technologies, such as electrospinning, that allows to endow smart materials with micro- and nano-structuration, thus opening up additional and unprecedented prospects. In this wide and lively scenario, this article systematically reviews the current advances in the development of thermo-active electrospun fibers and textiles, sorting them, according to their response to the thermal stimulus. Hence, several platforms including thermo-responsive systems, shape memory polymers, thermo-optically responsive systems, phase change materials, thermoelectric materials, and pyroelectric materials, have been described and critically discussed. The difference in active species and outputs of the aforementioned categories has been highlighted, evidencing the transversal nature of temperature stimulus. Moreover, the potential of novel thermo-active materials has been pointed out, revealing how their development could take to utmost interesting achievements. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.