Two-Dimensional Simulation of Electrospun Nanofibrous Structures: Connection of Experimental and Simulated Results

Abstract

Nanofibrous mats were obtained from electrospinning Nylon-6 solutions with concentrations of 30 and 35 wt% and were tested for filtration of polystyrene particles in suspension. Some experimental results were compared with the simulated ones. In the simulation, the two-dimensional structures were constructed by randomly depositing a nanofiber, which was assumed as an ellipse with an aspect ratio of 100, one by one. The nanofiber size is assumed to be polydisperse. The results showed that simulated configurations resembled real nanofibers with polydisperse diameters. Fibers from higher solution concentration were larger, resulting in larger pore size, which was confirmed with simulations. Varying the size distribution around the same average value did not make any difference to the surface coverage but it affected 2D pore areas for the systems at low fiber density. In addition, the probability for a particle to pass through the porous structure was less when the fiber density was higher and the particle diameter was larger, which was consistent with the filtration test. Lastly, water flux measurement could yield the void volume fraction as well as the volume-averaged pore diameter, which was found to be greater than the averaged 2D pore diameter from SEM micrographs by the quantity related to the fiber size.