The electrospinning technique has been known since the 1930s, but only with the advent of new nanotechnology applications this technique was re-discovered and became important for production of nanomaterials. The potential for obtaining different nanofibers with sizes ranging from 50 to 500 nm and micrometer length has been investigated for different materials, with promising results in different applications. The first part of this review is aimed at describing the fundamentals of the electrospinning process. We describe the influence of process variables such as applied field, working distance, speed of rotation of the collector and solution injecting flow rate. The variables associated to this system, such as type of solvent and polymer of interest, are also discussed.
Electrospinning; polymers; nanofibers; process parameters; solution parameters
