Faster electrospinning for nanofibers

The U.S. Department of Commerce provided $2.3 million to Arsenal Medical Inc., Watertown, Mass., to accelerate production of core-sheath (concentrically layered) nanofibers with features that help release targeted therapeutic molecules in medical applications. At the fall meeting of The Fiber Society in Boston, Arsenal Medical presented the results of a new high-throughput slit-surface electrospinning technology that increases manufacturing rates of core-sheath fibers 400-fold, as compared with current needle-based electrospinning techniques. Electrospinning, which creates nanofibers from a liquid polymer solution, usually operates at flow rates of 1-10 ml per hour. Arsenal Medical’s slit-surface electrospinning process generates the equivalent of several square meters of one-millimeter-thick core-sheath fibers per day. The company’s AxioCore™ fiber technology allows cell integration, tissue regeneration and controlled delivery of therapeutics to targeted locations in the human body.