Massive Production of Functional Nanofibers for Use in Advanced Composites, Energy Conversion and Storage, and Environmental Protection

Electrospinning is a low-cost, top-down, scalable nanomanufacturing technique based on the principle of electrohydrodynamic jetting, which is capable of producing continuous ultrathin fibers of synthetic and natural polymers, ceramics, metals, carbon, and semiconductor materials with the diameters ranging from a few nanometers to microns. This presentation summarizes the broad research in electrospinning technology, process control and modeling, and applications of electrospun nanofibers in toughening advanced polymer matrix composites, electrochemical energy conversion and storage, and environmental protection. Prospects are made on research of nanofiber manufacturing and frontier applications of nanofibers to solve various challenging problems.