Controlling the Placement of Spherical Nanoparticles in Electrically Driven Polymer Jets and its Application to Li-Ion Battery Anodes.

Employing circumferentially uniform air flow through the sheath layer of the concentric coaxial nozzle, the gas-assisted electrospinning (GAES) utilizes both high electric field and controlled air flow to produce nanofibers. The ability to tailor the distribution of various nanofillers (1.85-12.92 vol% of spherical SiO and Si nanoparticles) in a polyvinyl alcohol jet is demonstrated by varying airflow rates in GAES. The distribution of nanofillers is measured from transmission electron microscopy and is analyzed using an image processing technique to perform the dispersion area analysis and obtain the most probable separation between nanoparticles using fast Fourier transform (FFT). The analysis in this study indicates an additional 350% improvement in dispersion area with the application of high but controlled airflow, and a 75 percent decrease in separation between nanoparticles from the FFT. The experiments in this study are in good agreement with a coarse-grained MD simulation prediction for a polymer nanocomposite system subjected to extensional deformation. Lastly, utilizing the sheath layer air flow in production of Li-battery anode material, a 680 mAh g improvement is observed in capacity for nanofibers spun via GAES compared to ES at the same Si NP loading, which is associated with better dispersion of the electrochemically active nanoparticles.