Preparation of a prototype for continuous fiber drawing at nano size without the need for high voltage

The fact that the surface area is much higher compared to their micro- and macro-sized counterparts has led to nanoscale materials being the center of attention. Nanoscale materials are classified as nanoparticles, nanorods, nanofibers, nanomembranes/films. There are many different techniques in nanofiber production. These can be listed as attraction process, phase separation method, template method, fibrillation, electro fiber extraction method, centrifugal fiber extraction method and self-assembly. However, the most prominent of these techniques is the electro fiber extraction method. High voltages are used in this system, which consists of 3 basic elements: a feeding unit, a high voltage provider and a collector. The use of high voltage here poses both cost and risk. In this study, it is aimed to produce a prototype that will enable the "drafting process", about which there is very limited information in the literature, to produce continuous fiber production. Thus, the use of high voltage in the electro fiber drafting process, which is widely used for nano-sized fiber production, is eliminated. In the study, solutions were prepared from both polyvinylalcohol (PVA) and alginate (ALG) polymers, but production with PVA polymer was not realized due to polymer-related problems. In the experiments with ALG, continuous fiber production was successfully achieved with the prepared prototype and the surface morphology and fiber diameters of the produced fibers were examined first under optical microscope and the selected finest ones under scanning electron microscope. The data obtained proved that the prototype can be used for nano-sized fiber production and shows that the process can be further developed and used for fiber production with finer diameters.