Different Approaches for Fabrication of Aligned Electrospun Nanofibers

Nanofibers as a widely used class of nanomaterials have attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. Electrospinning is the most common method to produce nanofibers with high surface area, flexibility, interconnected porosity, and functionalized surface. However, there are limitations to this method. Bending instability of nanofibers produced by conventional electrospinning setups results in a randomly collected structure which severely limits the application of the electrospun nanofibers. Therefore, effective approaches have been developed to control the deposition of nanofibers on the collector in order to obtain aligned nanofibers in desired patterns. The nanofibrous structure of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of some tissues such as nerves, vessels, muscles, tendons, and ligaments has an aligned orientation. Therefore, the aligned nanofibers are required to mimic their ECM. So, aligned nanofibers play a key role in tissue engineering applications, and designing electrospinning setups for fabricating these functional structures can help to develop this field. In present review, different methods of fabricating aligned nanofibers including the use of mechanical force, electrical force, combination of mechanical and electrical forces, magnetic force, and near-field electrospinning have been investigated. Nanofibrous yarns have been studied as a method for producing secondary aligned structures, as well

Keywords:

Aligned Nanofibers , Electrospinning , Tissue Engineering