Date Approved
5-18-2023
Embargo Period
5-21-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S.
Department
Mechanical Engineering
College
Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering
Advisor
Vince Z. Beachley, Ph.D.
Committee Member 1
Joseph Stanzione, III, Ph.D.
Committee Member 2
Wei Xue, Ph.D.
Keywords
Centrifugal spinning, Nanofiber manufacturing, Polyacrylonitrile
Subject(s)
Nanofibers; Nanostructured materials
Disciplines
Materials Science and Engineering | Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Centrifugal spinning is noteworthy due to its high fiber throughput rate compared to other nanofiber manufacturing platforms. It is capable of producing fibers in the nanoscale diameter range from a multitude of polymers, such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN). With a traditional centrifugal spinner, fiber can be rapidly spun and collected on static posts. However, the use of static posts inevitably forms a dense ring of fiber after a short period of time, and this fiber build up can halt the spinning process. In this work, the factors that influence the throughput and scalability of highly aligned centrifugally spun PAN fibers are explored. A custom centrifugal spinner was used to vertically translate collected fibers during the spinning process. This allowed fibers to be distributed over a large surface area, extending operation time and increasing throughput. In addition, factors that affect fiber quality and diameter of PAN fibers during the spinning process were investigated, including spinneret to collector distance, spinneret rotational speed, and humidity. Resulting data demonstrated that these three factors can be independently optimized to reliably produce quality PAN fiber in the nanoscale diameter range. Furthermore, the throughput rate of PAN fibers was able to be increased without negatively impacting fiber quality or diameter. This work demonstrates the potential scalability of centrifugal spinning to quickly produce large amounts of highly aligned nanofiber in a cheap, efficient, and reliable manner, and also lends the ability to be collected in a roll-to-roll fashion.
Recommended Citation
Ippolito, Jason Glen, "ENHANCED THROUGHPUT OF ALIGNED POLYACRYLONITRILE NANOFIBER MANUFACTURING VIA HIGH-SPEED CENTRIFUGAL SPINNING" (2023). Theses and Dissertations. 3109.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/3109
