KR20210154392A - An apparatus for manufacturing nanofiber filaments and a method for making nanofiber filaments using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing nanofiber filaments capable of electrospinning a spinning solution through a spinning device to which voltage is applied; spinning the spinning solution toward a surface of a collector rotated at an angle inclined to the horizontal plane; and collecting and winding electrospun nanofibers manufactured by spraying air to the surface of the collector in a nanofiber filament form while moving the electrospun nanofiber to a lower end unit with the air. The method for manufacturing nanofiber filaments comprises: (i) a step of spinning a polymer solution toward the outer circumferential surface of a first collector (220) to which the voltage is applied by electrospinning; (ii) a step of spraying the air toward a lower end unit by an air spraying unit (300) provided in an upper end unit of the outer circumferential surface of the first collector (200); (iii) a step of allowing the nanofibers to flow down from an upper part to a lower part of the outer circumferential surface of the rotating first collector (220) by the sprayed air; and (iv) a step of manufacturing the nanofiber filaments by winding the arranged and moving nanofibers by a rotating second collector (420).

Description

Nanofiber filament manufacturing apparatus and manufacturing method using the same

The present invention electrospinning a spinning solution through a spinning mechanism to which voltage is applied, but spraying toward the collector surface rotating at an inclined angle with the horizontal plane, and spraying the air on the collector surface to electro-spun nanofibers with air It relates to a method for manufacturing a nanofiber filament that is collected and wound in the form of a nanofiber filament while moving to the lower end of the collector.

Nanofibers use various polymer materials as raw materials depending on the purpose, but the method of extracting the yarn is the same. In general, fibers are made by pushing fiber raw materials into holes with a size of 0.12 to 0.2 mm like extracting a rice cake and applying high pressure to make long threads, whereas nanofibers are pulled out by applying an electric field instead of high pressure, which is done by electrospinning. It is said When a high voltage electric field is applied to a polymer material, which is a raw material for radiation, an electric repulsive force is generated inside the raw material, causing molecules to agglomerate and split into nano-sized threads. The stronger the electric field, the finer the tear, so nanofibers with a diameter of 10 to 1,000 nanometers are spun depending on the spinning conditions. However, since the nanofibers spun in this way cannot be weaved to make a cloth, the nanofibers become entangled with each other like a nonwoven fabric and become a cloth by simply gathering them together without a separate weaving process.

Currently, the field where nanofiber commercialization is most concrete is the manufacturing field of biochemical protective clothing, and recently, there is a high interest in manufacturing an oral mask using nanofiber. However, since the electrospun nanofibers are randomly ejected from the nozzle during the electrospinning process and are randomly stacked, it is difficult to accumulate them while uniformly arranging them in a certain direction. As a prior art, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2015-0116492 discloses a method of manufacturing a nanofiber filament or a three-dimensional nanofiber structure by flowing liquid (water) along the surface of a rotating collector during electrospinning, but in reality It is not easy to uniformly arrange the nanofibers in one direction or separate the nanofibers from the surface of the collector. In particular, hydrophilic polymers that are soluble in a flowing solution, such as a polymer material soluble in water, are limited in manufacturing as nanofibers. have.

As another prior art, Prior Document 2 discloses a method of manufacturing a nanofiber filament in sequential steps of spinning a nanofiber, slitting it in two steps, cutting it, and then twisting it in three steps, but a series of There was a problem of going through a manual three-step process rather than an automated process.

The inventors of the present invention have devised an apparatus and method for manufacturing nanofiber filaments that have improved these problems.

Prior Document 1: Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2015-0115492 (published on October 16, 2015)

Prior Document 2: Advanced Polymer Technology 32 (2013) E44-E52 and Materials Letters 131 (2014) 128~131

An object of the present invention is to easily separate nanofibers obtained by electrospinning a spinning solution from a collector surface when manufacturing a nanofiber structure such as a nanofiber filament, and uniformly arranging the spun nanofibers in one direction. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing a filament.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing a nanofiber filament capable of spinning and collecting regardless of the type of polymer solution to be spun.

An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing apparatus and method capable of manufacturing a weavable nanofiber filament.

In order to solve this problem, the nanofiber filament manufacturing method of the present invention is a method for manufacturing a nanofiber filament of the present invention, air is strongly sprayed on the surface during electrospinning, so that the electrospun nanofiber flows down in a spiral direction along the rotating collector surface and moves, then the collector At the lower end, the nanofibers separated from the collector are twisted to form a filament, and this is wound.

Preferably, the manufacturing apparatus of the nanofiber filament of the present invention,

A spinning device 100 for electrically spinning a polymer spinning solution;

a first collector 220 having a normal outer surface for collecting nanofibers spun from the spinning mechanism and rotating about a central axis in a driving means;

an air jetting means 300 having a nozzle jetting from the top to the bottom along the outer circumferential surface of the first collector 220;

A second collector 400 provided under the first collector 220 to wind the nanofibers to be collected;

On the other hand, the manufacturing method of the nanofiber filament of the present invention,

(i) radiating a polymer solution toward the outer peripheral surface of the first collector 220 to which a voltage is applied by electrospinning;

(ii) spraying air toward the lower end by the air ejecting means 300 provided at the upper end of the outer circumferential surface of the first collector 200;

(iii) flowing down from the upper peripheral surface of the first collector 220 in which the nanofiber is rotated by the sprayed air; and

(iv) winding the arranged and moving nanofibers by the rotating second collector 420 to make a nanofiber filament; includes.

The present invention can easily separate nanofibers from the collector surface, uniformly arrange the nanofibers along the collector surface in the direction of the flow of strongly sprayed air, as well as polymers that can be dissolved by the solution into the air. By this, it is easily separated from the collector to produce nanofiber filaments, and furthermore, it is possible to easily manufacture a three-dimensional nanofiber structure.

In the present invention, since the present invention is provided with an air injection means to be sprayed on the outer circumferential surface of the first collector, there is no problem of separation failure between the nanofiber and the first collector unlike the prior art of separating with a liquid, so that the nanofiber can be easily It becomes separable in the 1st collector.

Since the present invention enables separation and collection of nanofibers through intermittent air jetting, intermittent control of on-off is easier compared to liquid due to the nature of air, and there is no need to go through a separate drying process after separation and collection of nanofibers. There is an advantage.

1 is a conceptual view of a nanofiber filament manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.
Figure 2 is a flow chart of the nanofiber filament manufacturing method according to the present invention.
3 is an enlarged photograph of a nanofiber electrospun according to the present invention.
Figure 4 is an enlarged photograph of the nanofiber filament prepared by the present invention.
Figure 5 is a weaving case using the nanofiber filament prepared by the present invention.

Hereinafter, an apparatus for manufacturing a nanofiber filament of the present invention will be described.

The polymer spinning solution is spun through a spinning device on which voltage is applied. The spinning device 100 may be a spinning nozzle, and since the nanofibers are spun by a rotatable conventional spinning device, spinning is achieved using not only electric force but also centrifugal force.

Since the spinning mechanism is generally known, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Nanofiber filament manufacturing apparatus of the present invention,

A spinning device 100 for electrically spinning a polymer spinning solution;

a first collector 220 having a cylindrical or conical outer surface for collecting nanofibers spun from the spinning device and rotating about a central axis by a first driving means 210;

an air jetting means 300 having a nozzle jetting downward along the outer circumferential surface at an upper portion of the first collector 220;

and a second collector 420 provided under the first collector 220 to wind the collected nanofibers.

Preferably, the first collector 220 is disposed in a vertical direction, whereas the second collector 420 is disposed in a horizontal direction to be perpendicular to the first collector 220 . By this arrangement, the nanofibers flowing down along the flow of air from the top to the bottom along the outer circumferential surface of the first collector 220 are twisted together by the rotation of the first collector 220 to form filaments, The filament is wound by the second collector 420 .

Preferably, the air injection means 300 includes an annular nozzle 320 disposed along the outer circumferential surface of the first collector 220 in a cylindrical shape. Since the annular nozzle 320 strongly blows wind from the top to the bottom along the outer circumferential surface of the first collector, the nanofibers supplied from the electrospinning machine are easily separated from the collector and move to the bottom, and polymer nanofibers having certain properties Even if it is, it is possible to respond compatibly.

The manufacturing method of the nanofiber filament using the present manufacturing apparatus will be described in detail.

The nanofiber filament manufacturing method according to the present invention,

(i) radiating the polymer solution toward the outer peripheral surface of the first collector to which a voltage is applied by electrospinning (S1);

(ii) spraying air from the upper end of the outer peripheral surface of the first collector toward the lower end (S2);

(iii) flowing down from the upper peripheral surface of the first collector in which the nanofibers rotate by the sprayed air (S3); and

(iv) winding the arranged and moving nanofibers by a second collector to make a nanofiber filament (S4); characterized in that it comprises a.

Preferably, the polymer solution for spinning is PCL, PP, PE, PET, PLA, PLLA, PVDF, nylon 6, viscose, PU, PVA, PMMA, chitosan, Keratin fiber, cellulose-based fiber, pitch-based or PAN-based polymer solution. It is obtained by dissolving any one selected from wool, silk, cotton, hemp, or recycled resources (hair, wool, silk, cotton, hemp, wood, pulp), PAN fibers and pitch-based fibers.

<Example 1> Preparation of nanofiber filaments using PAN-based nanofibers

Step 1: Electrospinning PAN-based nanofibers are spun under the conditions of Tip-to-Collector Distance 15 cm, Voltage 15 kV, temperature and humidity of 25±2 ℃ / 50 ±2 %, and feeding rate 0.1 ml/min.

- However, the first collecting means is required because the nanofibers electrospun in the electrospinning process move randomly while scattering irregularly. That is, it is necessary to uniformly arrange the nanofibers in a predetermined direction by the first collector 220 rotating by the driving of the first driving motor 210, and also twist and integrate. The nanofibers spun by the air spraying means 300 are sequentially flowed down and uniformly arranged in a predetermined direction and a plurality of nanofibers are twisted by the rotating first collector 220 to form a filament. do. That is, the nanofiber filament flowing down from the lower end of the first collector 220 is wound by the second collecting means. That is, the nanofiber filaments are collected and wound by the second collector 420 rotating by the second driving motor to form a filament shape. The nanofiber may be wound or molded by changing the rotational speed (rpm) of the second collector to change the strength and appearance of the nanofiber filament.

Since the present invention does not use a liquid solvent to separate the nanofibers from the collector, there is a post-treatment (in the case of an organic solvent, it is toxic, so it is a post-treatment to remove the poisonous component, and it is cumbersome to dry it even if it is water) and water There is no short-circuit caused by water, and intermittent air spraying as the nanofibers are separated and collected through an air medium because it is possible to separate and collect the nanofibers through intermittent air spraying rather than continuous air spraying. makes it easier to control.

100: spinning mechanism
200: first collecting means
210: first driving motor
220: second collector
300: air injection means
310: air supply device
320: air supply pipe
330: spray nozzle
400: second collecting means
410: second driving motor
420: second collector

Claims (4)

(i) radiating a polymer solution toward the outer peripheral surface of the first collector 220 to which a voltage is applied by electrospinning;
(ii) spraying air toward the lower end of the first collector 200 by the air ejecting means 300 provided at the upper end of the outer circumferential surface;
(iii) flowing down from the top of the outer peripheral surface of the first collector 220 in which the nanofibers rotate by the sprayed air; and
(iv) winding the arranged and moving nanofibers by the rotating second collector 420 to make a nanofiber filament; a method of manufacturing a nanofiber filament comprising: a.
A spinning device 100 for electrically spinning a polymer spinning solution;
a first collector 220 having a normal outer surface for collecting nanofibers spun from the spinning mechanism and rotating about a central axis in a driving means;
an air jetting means 300 having a nozzle jetting from the top to the bottom along the outer circumferential surface of the first collector 220;
A second collector (400) provided under the first collector (220) for winding the collected nanofibers;
3. The method of claim 2,
The air spraying means 300 is arranged along the outer peripheral surface of the first collector 220 in a cylindrical shape, an apparatus for manufacturing nanofiber filaments, characterized in that it has an annular nozzle 320 for spraying air from the top to the bottom.
3. The method of claim 2,
The first collector 220 is directed downward and has a tapered shape or a conical shape with a decreasing diameter, and is rotated by a driving motor 210. An apparatus for manufacturing a nanofiber filament.

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