During lab on May 2, the group began our first actual trail on the electrospinner. This time we had ample time for nanofibers to form. For this test, we once again used the PEO polymer, however, this one dated more recently to April 27, 2012. All other variables to the electrospinner remained the same, with the gears being seven centimeters apart and a total of 12 strings attached to the gears, with the exception of the shiny side of the aluminum foil facing upwards, away from the gears.
While this trail was successful, we decided we needed to better optimize the tray holding the PEO so we would not need to pour as much polymer. Not only do we want to make the tray smaller, but we also want to the tray to be closer to the gears. This will allow less polymer to be used, as well as, attach to the strings of the gears faster.
If you observe the attached video, you can see the nanofibers begin to form and attach to the foil. The sharp white lines that show occasionally are the nanofibers.
Once we were able to attain nanofibers, we took a sample down to our advisor's lab to view it under a high-powered microscope. The resulting images (shown below) displays a magnified view of what our first batch of nanofibers actually look like!
Awesome video! Keep up the good work. One of the things I am concerned about is the material we are using to make the well. We have to make sure the final product is made of a solvent resistant material. ( DMF might desolve the well polymer.
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