(5dm) Harnessing Electro-Extrusion Process to Design Micro-Structured Tapes and Films

The need for miniaturization has compelled the current technology to have a paradigm shift from a macro-scale to a nano-scale. It has been known that the fibers of nanometer size diameters can be produced by electrospinning, a technique based on deformation of the surface induced by the amount of electrical charge on the fiber surface. Although fibers of diverse morphologies have been produced using electrospinning, the in-situ experimental monitoring of the micro-/nano-structure development in fibers is still not feasible due to the extremely fast nature of the process. Therefore, the theoretical modeling and simulation is of paramount importance in probing the spatio-temporal evolution of microstructure and form a basis to determine structure-property relationships, which in turn provides guidance to the electrospinning process. These relationships can then be utilized in tailoring micro-/nano fibers according to the desired application. My future research is aimed at modeling and simulation of electrospinning process by incorporating morphology development in polymer fibers and subsequently, extending the electrospinning process to electro-extrusion for producing tapes and films. The knowledge acquired by modeling and simulation of these processes will be applied to facilitate the manufacture of charge storage devices for energy applications and diverse micro-structured materials, that would have significant impact on industries of specialty polymers.