Melt electrospinning

After this first discovery, it wasn't until 1981 that melt electrospinning was described by Larrondo and Manley as part of a three-paper series.

[1] A meeting abstract on melt electrospinning in a vacuum was published by Reneker and Rangkupan 20 years later in 2001.

[2] Since this scientific publication in 2001, there have been regular articles on melt electrospinning, including reviews on the subject.

[5] The molten electrified jet also requires cooling to solidify, while solution electrospinning relies on evaporation.

While reported flow rates are low, all of the fluid electrospun is collected, unlike solution electrospinning where a great part of the solvent is evaporated.

For linear homogeneous polymers, a low molecular weight (below 30,000g/mol) can result in broken and poor quality fibers.

It is a promising new formulation technique in the field of pharmaceutical technology to prepare amorphous solid dispersions or solid solutions with enhanced or controlled drug dissolution because it can combine the advantages of melt extrusion (e.g. solvent-free, effective amorphization, continuous process) and solvent-based electrospinning (increased surface area).

[18][19][20] The electrified molten jet created via melt electrospinning has a more predictable path, and polymer fibers can be deposited accurately onto the collector.

[11] Most polymers that can be melt-electrospun can also be written assuming the parameters can be tuned in such a way as to produce a stable jet.