Hello, I am currently working on a study that includes PVA fibers synthesis using an electrospinning device. The used PVA polymer solution is of 14% concentration. At the beginning, the fibers start to form smoothly, however, after a few seconds the polymer solution starts to accumulate at the tip of the nozzle and no further fibers are formed. I don't know what exactly the problem is, given that the used solvent is water, PVA molecular weight is in the range of 70,000-100,000, and it's hot water soluble. If anyone could help me with this problem I would really appreciate that.
Thank you Sovan for your response. I do really use the parameters that you already mentioned but still facing the same problem.
Hi Sewar, sometimes the syringe needle gets clogged during electrospinning and it prevents fiber deposition. Please check time to time if the needle is clear or not, also you can try using needle with larger diameter, if there is clogging issue. Another issue can be the molecular weight of the PVA you are using. I prepare 15% solution of crystalline PVA (Himedia, MW 160000, CAS No: 9002-89-5) for electrospinning and get very good thick fiber deposition. I hope these informations would help you.
Hi Sovan, I am using a PVA polymer solution with a 10% concentration. I am keeping a voltage of 25 KV, maintaining a distance of up to 10 cm with a flow rate of 2 ml/hour, and maintaining a mandrel RPM of 200 RPM during the experiment. But nothing deposits on the mandrel. I want to make the fiber without using surfactant. Could you please suggest what parameter I should change to get a fiber?
Check your nozzle size. Viscous solution needs more larger diameter nozzle. I would suggest using 18-20G nozzle.
Sewar Abuassi I was producing PVA fibers in 2017 and i remember applied voltage is a very important. It is suggested in above answers to choose 25 KV, i think the 25KV is very high and there exist a chance of bead formation.
Depending upon the viscosity of your polymeric solution you have to find your optimum voltage. Slowly increase applied voltage and find your optimum voltage.
Following is the video of my experiments. If u have more queries, i will be happy if i can help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TmuMAkOaDs
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