Influence of Jet Formation Dynamics on Fiber Morphology in Electrospinning: An Advanced Image Processing Approach

This study investigates the effects of jet formation and dynamics on fiber morphology during the electrospinning process. Experiments were conducted using virgin PET (v-PET) and recycled PET (r-PET) to examine the influence of molecular weight, electric field intensity, polymer concentration, and solvent ratio on jet diameter, jet length, and fiber morphology. Image processing techniques were employed to analyze jet morphology and calculate the draw ratio. The results indicate that at the beginning of the scattering region, the jet undergoes Rayleigh instability, leading to segmentation and micro-fibrillation, followed by further elongation and thinning to form nanofibers. A higher ratio was observed to increase bead formation in lower molecular weight polymers. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that v-PET produces more stable and finer jets, whereas r-PET exhibits greater resistance to electrostatic forces. ANOVA analyses revealed that electric field intensity (kV/cm) significantly affects the jet diameter (=0.034) and jet length (=0.012) in v-PET, while no statistically significant difference was observed for r-PET (> 0.05). The optimization of the solvent system and electric field parameters is a critical factor in the electrospinning process. EDX analyses confirmed the absence of solvent residues in the fibers.