Preparation of Curled Microfibers by Electrospinning with Tip Collector

We report on curled polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) microfibers fabricated by a modified electrospinning with a small nail as the tip collector. PVP (45 wt%) ethanol solution is electrospun under different working voltages ranging from 10 to 15, 20, 30 and 40 kV. It is found that with the increase of working voltage, the proportion of the curled fibers increases and the uniformity of the curled fibers improves, as well as the repeat distance of the curled structures reducing. Particularly, some curled fibers develop into helical structures under relatively high voltages. Further analyses indicate that the formation mechanism for the curled polymer fibers can be ascribed to electrical driven bending instability and/or mechanical jet buckling when hitting the collector surface. This modified electrospinning technique may be a cost-effective approach for the mass production of curled microfibers.