Patent — available for licensing
Highly Aligned Electrospun Fibers and Mats
A NASA invention available to explore as a licensing opportunity.
About this technology
Overview
NASA's Langley Research Center has created a modified electrospinning apparatus for spinning highly aligned polymer fibers. Fiber placement, orientation, and porosity are difficult to control using conventional electrospinning apparatus. Conventional electrospinning creates randomly oriented fibers that are well suited to nonwoven mats, but not to other applications. Now, NASA Langley has developed the capability to control the alignment and porosity of fibers for mats, which will broaden the range of engineering applications of electrospun materials to include new tissue engineering scaffolds, membrane filters, textiles, and embedded sensors and actuators. The new apparatus provides a simple and inexpensive means of producing fibers and mats of controlled fiber diameter, porosity, and thickness.