Development and Functionalisation of Nanofibres Produced by ...

You are kindly invited
to the public defence
of the doctoral thesis
Ana Margarida
do Amaral Cardoso dos Santos
DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONALISATION
OF NANOFIBRES PRODUCED BY
ELECTROSPINNING
and you are cordially invited
to the reception
Monday 27 th September 2010
at 15.00
“De Sterre” building S4
Auditorium A
Krijgslaan 281, 9000 Gent
Samenvatting:
Nanofibres technology is an important field of the
growing nanotechnology research. Nanofibres provide
ways to improve functionality of materials.
Electrospinning is the most versatile process to fabricate
ultra-thin fibres. This technique allows different
materials like polymers, composites, ceramics and metals
to be produced in various fibre assemblies. It is an
attractive and versatile process to produce polymeric
fibres of which the diameter ranges over several orders
of magnitude. By controlling the process parameters
fibrous structures with different diameters and
arrangements can be obtained to meet different
applications. The simplicity of the process and the
properties of electrospun fibres encourage the growing
research on this field. Creative applications of this
technology arise every day. A profound knowledge of the
process opens perspectives to practical applications of
nanofibrous materials.
In this work special attention was paid to up-scaling
solutions of electrospinning technology. Challenges like a
high production rate and commercial viability are
objectives of the current research in this field.
Manufacturing of electrospun structures is being studied
through process modelling and engineering design to
reach an adequate productivity and performance.
Attention goes also to safety issues and environment
friendly methodologies. Because of their dimensions
traditional methodologies used for conventional non-
woven materials may not be appropriate for
electrospining and novel methods are constantly being
developed. New technologies for characterization and
quality control of these materials constitute an important
branch of the ongoing research in this field.
This work demonstrates the versatility of electrospinning
in processing highly porous materials composed of nano-
scale to micron-scale diameter fibres. Different
applications and strategies of functionalisation have
been explored. It is expected that research in
electrospinning will become even more multidisciplinary.
As the use of this technique is extending to new
materials and new applications, further development of
this technique requires extensive research and input
from different fields. Researchers and investors
anticipate that, in the future, electrospinning will
become one of the most powerful tools for fabricating
micro and nanofibrous structures with the broadest
range of functionalities and applications.