Biomass Electrospinning: Recycling Materials for Green Economy Applications

Abstract

The development and advancement of electrospinning (ES) presents a unique material technology of the future achieved by fabricating novel nanofibrous materials with multifunctional physical (three-dimensional [3D] structure, nanoscalable sizes) and chemical characteristics (functional groups). Advancing the possibility of preparing various classes of novel organic and inorganic electrospun fiber composites with unique features such as polymer alloys, nanoparticles (NPs), active agents, and devices. This feature gives provision for internal access of the setup parameters such as polymer precursor material, polymer concentration, solvent, and the method of fiber collection that consequentially improves the intrinsic control of the construction mechanism of the final nanofibrous architecture. In synthetic electrospinning, the nanofibrous material processing allows for internal control of the electrospinning mechanism and foster chemical crosslinking to generate covalent connections between polymeric fibers. Comparing technologies according to materials of the future revealed that electrospinning supports the formation of micro-scale and in some cases nano-scale fibers while the formation of thin films is facilitated by the electrospraying system. Recent innovations point to various biomass waste streams that may be used as an alternative source of polymeric materials for application in electrospinning to produce materials for the future.