As we know very well DC voltage is used for electrospinning but if we use AC voltage for electrospinning will the nanofiber membrane formation occur? If not why ?
Yes. The AC electrospinning was described i.e. by Lukas et al. Effective AC needleless and collectorless electrospinning for yarn production .
However, the mechanism of fiber formation is a bit different and not all polymers are spunable by AC electrospinning.
A good paper to start reading into this topic is:
Kessick, R., 2004. The use of AC potentials in electrospraying and electrospinning processes. Polymer, 45(9), DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2004.02.056
Yes, it has been demonstrated to occur, see e.g.:
Alternating current electrospinning for preparation of fibrous drug delivery systems
August 2015 International Journal of Pharmaceutics 495(1)
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2015.08.069
AC can also be used for electrospinning process, but the frequency range for AC electrospinning needs to be determined. Although it is typically between 500 Hz and 1 kHz. When the frequency is too low, the electrospinning jet traveling between the tip and the collector may comprise mainly of a single polarity instead of periodic positive and negative segments. Also, the fiber diameter from AC electrospinning is significantly larger compared to DC electrospinning . You may read more about this here Article The Use of AC Potentials in Electrospraying and Electrospinn...
Yes, it has been demonstrated for examples:
- DOI:10.1016/j.matlet.2019.05.132
- doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2016.03.02
- doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2015.08.069
- doi.org/10.1016/j.xphs.2017.02.021
- DOI: 10.1016/j.xphs.2017.02.021
- doi.org/10.1039/C4CP04346D
Yes, it is possible to use AC voltage instead of DC, however AC may not work with all polymers that can be electrospun with the standard DC setup. For AC voltage, the parameter that is eminent is the frequency(cycles) at which the polymeric solution is being charged with. As after every other cycle the solution will form jets that will have segments where the charge will be positive, with segments right after that will be charged negative (oppositely charged). Varying and alternating charges will reduce the instability of the jets, which will in turn have less randomness and more alignment of fibers as compared to DC electrospinning. One thing to note in AC electrospinning is that as the jets become more stable, the fiber elongation is reduced resulting in larger fiber diameters.
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