Electrospinning of very long and highly aligned fibers

Previously unattainable success in electrospinning of very long and highly aligned fibers has been achieved using various parallel conducting collectors, e.g., the U-shape collectors that are negatively connected to high-voltage power supply. Unlike the electrically grounded for the conventional gap electrospinning, collector in the negative connection is of effectiveness and ease to guide the charged jet to span across a very large gap and thus to become aligned arrays over large areas. Results demonstrate that well-aligned fibers with length over half a meter can be obtained and the suspended fibers can be further non-destructively transferred to other substrates or structures for specific uses. This work is believed to provide a new insight into fabrication of ultra-long fibers, which should broaden the applications of electrospinning.