An Upgraded Low-Cost and Adjustable Multi-Syringe Electrospinning Machine for Reproducible Nanofiber Production
Description
This work presents an upgraded version of our previously reported, highly affordable and customizable in-house electrospinning machine. The previous system demonstrated accessible polyvinyl alcohol nanofiber production but was limited by single-syringe operation, inadequate control and validation of solution flow and collector rotation, limited safety features, and the absence of environmental monitoring and automated data recording. This improved equipment integrates a common three-syringe plunger pump, a rotating drum collector with real-time speed monitoring, an insulated chamber with temperature control and humidity monitoring, a touchscreen interface, parameter limit validation, and automated data recording. Gravimetric calibration of three syringe-needle configurations yielded a linear flow rate response from 0.10 to 8.26 mL/h, with a coefficient of determination of at least 0.9991. Encoder validation demonstrated close agreement between commanded and measured syringe-pump motions, with final displacement errors below 1%. The drum collector operates approximately 50 to 590 rpm with a coefficient of variation below 5%. The improved system produces bead-free polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers with an average diameter of 0.21 ± 0.03 µm and an apparent porosity of 54.10%. With an estimated cost of USD 1,496, this open-source platform provides improved yield, process control, safety, traceability, and reproducibility for laboratory nanofiber production.
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Institutions
- Sepuluh Nopember Institute of TechnologyEast Java, Surabaya