Electrodynamic tailoring of self-assembled three-dimensional electrospun constructs

The rational design of three-dimensional electrospun constructs (3DECs) can lead to striking topographies and tailored shapes of electrospun materials. This new generation of materials is suppressing some of the current limitations of the usual 2D non-woven electrospun fiber mats, such as small pore sizes or only flat shaped constructs. Herein, we pursued an explanation for the self-assembly of 3DECs based on electrodynamic simulations and experimental validation. We concluded that the self-assembly process is driven by the establishment of attractive electrostatic forces between the positively charged aerial fibers and the already collected ones, which tend to acquire a negatively charged network oriented towards the nozzle. The in situ polarization degree is strengthened by higher amounts of clustered fibers, and therefore the initial high density fibrous regions are the preliminary motifs for the self-assembly mechanism. As such regions increase their in situ polarization electrostatic repulsive forces will appear, favoring a competitive growth of these self-assembled fibrous clusters. Highly polarized regions will evidence higher distances between consecutive micro-assembled fibers (MAFs). Different processing parameters - deposition time, electric field intensity, concentration of polymer solution, environmental temperature and relative humidity - were evaluated in an attempt to control material's design.