The paper "3D printed multiplexed electrospinning sources for large-scale production of aligned nanofiber mats with small diameter spread" by Erika García-López, Daniel Olvera-Trejo, and Luis Fernando Velásquez-García was selected to the Highlights of 2017 Collection of the IOP Journal Nanotechnology (one of the top scientific journals in the field of nanotechnology). The articles were selected on the basis of referee endorsements, presentation of outstanding research, and popularity with the online readership.
The article reports novel, low-cost, and modular miniaturized nanofiber electrospinning sources for the scalable production of non-woven aligned nanofiber mats. These are of great interest in reinforced nanocomposites and for biomedical applications. The work was conducted as part of the MIT-Tecnológico de Monterrey Nanotechnology program.
The devices are monolithic linear arrays of electrospinning emitters arranged in a zig-zag pattern that are made by stereolithography. The 17-emitter device produced well-aligned nanofiber mats with a very uniform narrow nanofiber distribution (81 nm average diameter, 17 nm standard deviation). Experiments suggest that massively multiplexing the emitters is a viable approach to greatly increase the throughput of non-woven aligned nanofiber mats without sacrificing the statistics of the nanofibers generated.
Congratulations to Erika, Daniel, and Luis!